


Sentiment

by Sorbus



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Gen, HAHAHAA, Hurt/Comfort, friendship fic, ghost!tsuna, he haunts the school, this is platonic one hundred percent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-23 13:29:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 27,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11403387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sorbus/pseuds/Sorbus
Summary: There's a small brown haired boy that hangs around Namimori middle. Hibari had never paid attention to the boy, who was so much an outcast it seemed as if he didn't exist, until one day he realised that most people believe he doesn't. Ghost!Tsuna.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is work I started in 2015 and finished just recently back on FF.net. I'm here to add it to the archive and refrain from looking over the older chapters to edit them (all) orz

Hibari Kyoya was fairy busy as the self-instated ruler of Namimori middle. He had only entered the school a month prior, and he hadn't even finished memorising the names and faces of every student. Alas, the skylark couldn't help it if the student body were so unruly that they needed his constant intervention. Quite a few people had rebelled against his regime, and even a month later, a couple of those degenerates remained. Hibari would soon amend their attitude, however.

Although that is why, he told himself, that he barely paid attention to the herbivores that generally followed the rules. When the ones that fought, did drugs, drank alcohol, smoked and trounced were dealt with, Hibari promised himself to deal with the rest. So if he saw a few herbivores that loitered a little too much for his liking, or were slightly scruffy, he merely warned them with a glare and went on his merry way.

It was during one morning that he first caught sight of the brunet herbivore. It was almost time for the bell to ring and homeroom to start. A couple of herbivores were still on the field, rushing to their classrooms. It annoyed the prefect that there were still some persistent late-comers to his school, but it was far, far fewer than the amount when he first enrolled, so he was somewhat satisfied. One herbivore however, was  _not_  in a rush. The boy was standing halfway between the gate and the school. Occasionally he gave and hop or a twirl, but kept his back to the prefect. After a moment, Hibari registered that the brunet was whistling. Loitering around and  _whistling_. Unacceptable.

"Herbivore." Hibari growled, prepared to make his way to his new-found prey, when loud, boisterous laughter met his ears. Twisting around, he spotted a group of three making their way towards the gates. Each had dyed their hair against the school rules, and was in possession of numerous uniform violations. They were all atrociously late, and the skylark spied a cigarette between the fingers of the one on the left. The prefect's eyes narrowed, even as his mouth twitched into a feral grin. He'd bite them to death.

After a vicious punishment towards the trio of rule-breakers, Hibari remembered the brunet herbivore he was about to bite before they came along. While scanning the field, he noted with satisfaction that there was nobody in sight, and promptly shoved the strange boy to the back of his mind. Looking at the three unconscious delinquents, Hibari decided he had bigger problems to take care of after all.

– x –

Hibari, while being an extremely disciplined person, was also still relatively young and impulsive. He always had completed all work set out for him before the deadline, but on some occasions, he found himself unwilling to continue with the tiresome work, and so would engage his interest elsewhere for a while. In other words, he would procrastinate.

His main hobby would be climbing onto tall places. Trees, rooftops, poles... anywhere with a vantage point. Secretly, he loved the feeling of looking down upon the herbivore crowds, as if they were hoards of prey for him to simply choose from.

Scanning his eyes over the school grounds (his territory, he mentally reaffirmed), Hibari was pleased to see that everything was in order. There were no herbivores skipping school, trying to crowd around the buildings, littering or smoking. A small amount of pride made itself known to the prefect, having fixed what used to be a disreputable school – although Hibari would never admit that any task was too hard for him, he would allow himself to bask in his achievement. Much like a lion looking over his kingdom, the prefect mused.

After a moment the skylark furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance. The top a brunet herbivore was peeking out of the top of one of the many trees in the courtyard. While Hibari secretly agreed with the other boy's choice of location, napping in trees during class time was breaking the rules (if anyone other than he decided to do it, that is) and required a biting. He could not allow any rule to go unpunished, lest the other herbivores decided to disrespect his reign.

Vaulting over the fence upon the roof, Hibari took out his tonfa in mid-air, kicking off the side of the school building to break his fall. Vaguely he heard shouts from a classroom he passed by, and quirked his lips in amusement.  _Herbivores_. Upon landing, the raven-haired boy stalked towards the tree (which, now that he thought about it, was highly audacious. The herbivore wasn't even bothering to hide from him), releasing his killing intent as he went. He heard what seemed to a mix between a squeak and a squeal from the tree, and grinned.

Rushing forwards, Hibari cut through the foliage with a tonfa, ready to bite the truanting herbivore to death. Yet when the branches gave way, grey eyes widened at the sight before him. Twigs and branches had been moved, piled together to form a nest. Small birds had been resting alongside the edges, contributing a series of feathers that made the nest seem all the more appealing. Hibari had to physically restrain himself from claiming it right away. He had a herbivore to bite.

It was then that he noticed that the nest and tree were both surprisingly empty. He hadn't heard the sounds of any retreating student, and the courtyard was entirely empty. Furrowing his brows, the prefect had to decide between pursuing his prey, and settling in the nest. Although looking at the beautiful creation, the returning birds and the heavenly sunlight streaming through... maybe he had imagined the herbivore after all. It might have been a real animal, and not a student. Nodding once to himself, the prefect decided that there was, for once, nobody to bite. With a pleased sound, Hibari quickly settled into the nest, removing his jacket to take his daily nap. Yes, he quite liked his new den.

Later, after a particularly brutal biting towards some herbivore who dared litter around the tree his nest was in, the entirety of Namimori middle knew not to venture anywhere near the prefect's nest.


	2. Chapter 2

It was during one of his (many) patrols one morning that Hibari decided to cast a fond gaze towards what he considered to be his lair. The entirety of Namimori was his territory, and his house he had to share with the herbivores that called themselves his parents. The disciplinary office however, was sacred, only available for him – and on occasion, Kusekabe – to enter. Every carnivore, he had decided, needed a lair, and so he was inordinately pleased about obtaining his own.

It was understandable then, when he looked towards his lair and saw a fluffy brunet sticking out of its window, he was angry. Scratch that, he was enraged. How  _dare_  they trespass upon his ultimate territory? He would  _destroy_  the unfortunate herbivore who had the gall to invade  _his_  lair.

For once, he didn't bother restrain his killing intent as made his way towards the disciplinary office – choosing to scale the wall rather than run through the corridors (running was prohibited regardless). He swooped through the still open window; tonfas already out and ready to bite the trespasser. It seemed however that his dramatic entrance was for naught, for there was no sign of any other form of life within the office. Hissing like an enraged cat, Hibari bristled, before sitting down and pulling out the list of students. He would find and bite whoever the trespassing herbivore was if it killed him.

– x –

Looking in the mirror, Namimori's 'demon prefect' frowned. He had bags under his eyes (although few would classify the slightest darkening of skin under his eyes as 'bags', he did and that was all that mattered). The reason for his lack of sleep could be attributed to one fluffy brunet – one which Hibari  _still_  didn't know the name of, despite having spent the entire night memorising each and every student of Namimori middle.

The school obviously had more problems that he thought, if its records were so bad that some students weren't properly registered.

Obviously he couldn't expect much from a crowd of herbivores. It hadn't been the first time he'd caught sight of the brown-haired boy he was currently looking for. No in fact he'd seen them in the background of several situations – always alone and ignored.

Hibari cared not if the student herbivores decided bullying by exclusion was an acceptable past time. As long as they didn't break the rules. The teachers deciding to ignore the brunet, however, was entirely unprofessional and thus unacceptable. It had crossed his mind that the particular student was not only a trespasser in his lair, but also upon his school, but he had seen no person – student or teacher – ever point out the other as such. During lunch or physical education, or within the halls where he had spotted the boy, nobody had accused him of trespassing upon the school and so the prefect deemed it far more likely to be a severe case of bullying. The brunet looked like the sort of weak herbivore to get bullied after all.

The upside of it all, was that the 'bags' under his eyes allowed for an even more prominent glare, which sent students and teachers alike scurrying as he stalked down the halls. Sheer annoyance radiated off him in waves, and even the weak herbivores could sense him from a mile away. Hibari would not let a trespasser go unpunished.

Luckily (for the prefect, that is) he spotted one particular second year that he recognised having been around when the brunet herbivore had been. From what little he'd seen, he didn't think Yamamoto Takeshi would partake in such widespread alienation of another, but then again, he was still an herbivore.

He strode up to the baseball player, mindless of the conversation he was having with the people around him. Reaching out and grabbing the other by their collar, he yanked them down to his own level.

"Herbivore." The prefect hissed. He would have been amused at the paling of the other's face if he wasn't so irritated.

"Hibari, right? Haha, what can I–"

"The fluffy brunet herbivore." The skylark cut the other boy off. Listening to his dribble would only serve to irritate Hibari even more. "Who is he?"

The prefect reigned in his impatience as the other boy blinked, and took some time to contemplate the question. A few moments later, his expression broke out into a large grin.

"I have no idea!"

The prefect growled in warning. He would not tolerate any disgusting behaviour within his school.

"Lies." Hibari hissed. If he was honest with himself, he was slightly disappointed in Yamamoto Takeshi for his herbivorous lies. Quite ruthlessly, he squashed the emotion, allowing himself to mentally sneer at the boy in front of him. "I saw you with the short herbivore with spiky brown hair."

The prefect could see the minute changes on the baseball player's face. Confusion, suspicion, shock and  _denial_. Hmph. Hibari knew the boy was a liar.

"I, uh. I h-have to go." The hazel eyes boy struggled with an air of desperation, and Hibari let him go with an air of disgust. He couldn't stand cowards who ran away.

The baseball herbivore stopped his retreat for a moment, as if contemplating. With a shaky breath, he looked back at the prefect. "There really is nobody I know like that, Hibari-sempai. T-the only one was Tsuna."

Hibari raised an eyebrow, demanding more information. Yamamoto looked away.

"He died last year."

The prefect didn't bother to pursue the boy for an explanation. He could recognise the signs of guilt and grief. Huffing in irritation, he turned around and strode away.

– x –

That afternoon, Hibari felt like he was staggering his way over to his nest. The prefect was exhausted, not only for having stayed up the entire night previous, for having to deal with all the messes the herbivores caused during the day. A few delinquents had decided to try and overpower him through numbers and Hibari inwardly scoffed. They were weak. It hadn't helped however, that he couldn't forget what the baseball herbivore said – it had nagged upon his mind to the point that he missed his daily nap (making for a  _very_ cranky skylark) and all but demanded that Tetsuya obtain information of the boy named 'Tsuna' right then. The prefect honestly felt like breaking a wall when the information on the school system was missing. Pathetic herbivores. Pathetic disgusting herbivores with no sense of order.

Reaching the bundle of branches that served as his resting area, the skylark was all too ready to lay down for some well deserved rest. He froze immediately upon noticing a foreign object within his territory. A wealth of wild but edible berries lay in a pile in his nest, neatly stacked in a pile. Out of the corner of his eye, a flash of brown went by. The prefect looked back at the offering.  _Sorry_ ; the message was clear.

Hibari's mouth twitched. Well, he could use a snack.


	3. Chapter 3

Hibari had to refrain from openly scowling at the older herbivores that pretended to run his school. He was in a meeting, and he was required to maintain his composure – especially since the school board was full of weaklings that started to stutter and flail about whenever he showed his ire. Dealing with further incompetence would only make the prefect even more annoyed.

Even though he really,  _really_  wanted to break something.

Tetsuya had come through for him the previous night, having obtained all information available on a 'Tsuna' (and luckily in this small town, only one person would have been liable for that odd nickname – one Sawada Tsunayoshi) from the police records. Even though simply dropping Hibari's name would allow him access to any police records in the surrounding area, it still took far more time than Hibari would have liked.

And the results were certainly displeasing. A somewhat low quality image had been included in Tetsuya's report – showing a frail looking brunet staring almost fearfully out at him. It was undoubtedly the herbivore he had been spotting around his school. The report was brief and minimal – male, thirteen years of age, born on October 14th, student of Namimori middle.  _Deceased_.

The police had been investigating the nature of his death, which had occurred at school, given that the herbivore had been bullied and some feared that the death had been a direct result of it. Hibari had to hold back from scowling once more, thinking back on it. It left a bad taste in his mouth, that a student had died in his school (regardless of the fact it happened before he had enrolled) and that there was a possibility that other students would go so far as murdering one of their own, no matter how outcasted he had been. It had, eventually, been ruled an accident, the cause being a rusty and broken rooftop fence. Judging from the look of the baseball player however, the prefect was highly sceptical over this conclusion. Yet when the deceased student in question seemed content enough, Hibari decided to let it drop.

Especially if the deceased student in question was happy enough to distract him during a meeting.

The skylark twitched, torn over whether to growl at the dead herbivore for his impudence or stifle a laugh at the ridiculous faces and sounds he deemed appropriate to make at the adult that was currently speaking. The brunet tipped over a stack of papers next to the current speaker, who then descended into a fit of hurried panicking trying to set them straight again (and it really was mildly fascinating the extent to which people were put under pressure in his presence). In his panic, the teacher tripped over and fell splayed in front of the room.

Hibari coughed, almost choking in trying to reign in his laughter. The dead student grinned in triumph, which only widened when Hibari sent him a discrete amused glance.

"I knew it! You can see me, can't you?"

Deciding that he had ignored the herbivore enough (which he had been doing ever since he entered school that morning and found himself, for lack of a better word, being haunted), the prefect gave a small but definite incline of the head, and allowed a brief smirk to pass over his lips.

"Mou, that's really rude you know?"

The prefect could only raise an eyebrow, slightly incredulous at the completely casual manner in which he was being treated. Being dead for a year would give one time to completely let go of their mortal reservations, he guessed. Still, if the dead herbivore decided to disrupt the order much more, he would find  _some_  way to bite him.

Seemingly put out, the ghost boy pouted at the skylark, before settling down besides him, opting to fidget every so often than continue his mischief. Once in a while, the prefect would glance over to the dead boy, trying to reign in his curiosity. It didn't escape his notice however, the tiny amount of tension that was released from the brunet's shoulders each time he did this, or the odd, almost inaudible sighs of relief. Hibari had to forcefully stop himself from feeling too sympathetic, but he couldn't help but slightly pity the boy (although, the skylark reasoned, the boy did look like a fluffy bunny, and he did make Hibari his nest – so the prefect could afford to take pity on him). Being invisible for an entire year would have had some last effect, Hibari mused. He'd have been unacknowledged, unable to communicate or reaffirm his existence in any way. So despite the risk of seeming inattentive, the prefect continued to give the ghost boy these small glances every so often.

Soon enough, the meeting was coming to a close.

– x –

The prefect of Namimori middle could be described as many things. Blood-thirsty, violent, stubborn, prideful... and highly socially awkward. He communicated with grunts and nods and the occasional 'hn'. When he did speak, it was in animal metaphors, and he refused to explain them to anyone else around him. His communication issues hardly posed a challenge for his daily life – being the social recluse that he was. Kusekabe would deal with most things involving communication (more often than not relaying messages, explaining things to parents or authorities, giving out notices and the like), and the prefect himself rarely had to interact with others (especially from his own age bracket). If he ever did need to say something, it could almost always be solved with a simple line:  _I'll bite you to death_.

Needless to say, his abrupt new companion of a dead Namimori student was far more than his social or communication abilities could handle (the prefect refused to think of this as pitiful, no matter how pitiful it actually seemed). After the meeting ended, Hibari had paperwork to do, and then class rounds, and then finally a full patrol. The dead brunet had thankfully stayed relatively quiet for the first two; Hibari wouldn't have liked to have been disrupted, or admitted for mental help for talking to thin air around other students (although some members of his family had been trying for years to get him committed, they were thus far unacceptable, and Hibari didn't want all his hard work to go to waste). However now he was walking alone, in relative isolation (given that he was avoided on sight), his invisible brunet companion decided it was high time to have the perfect join him in the afterlife by talking the boy to death.

"... and then my shoe managed to get  _stuck_  on the edge of the  _fan_. I was so late; it didn't even seem worth it coming to school, especially because I managed to lose  _the exact same shoe_  running away from bullies. I mean, can you believe that, Hibari-san?"

The prefect's face was painfully blank for a few moments before he gave a small, sharp nod. He was partly fascinated – in the same way someone is morbidly fascinated at a dead body – at just how  _herbivorous_  that particular dead student had been. If he had still been alive when Hibari enrolled, the brunet would have been sure to have received numerous punishments. Yet the majority of his mind was chanting _bite the herbivore to death_. The incessant yammering was intruding upon his peace, and creating noise pollution (that only he could hear, but still). These offenses had Hibari twitching every so often in an attempt to reach for his tonfa, before he remembered that the herbivore was sadly, already dead.

"Herbivore." The skylark's voice cut through the ongoing triad of the other boy. Tsuna stopped talking to look curiously at the prefect.

"Yes, Hibari-san?"

"Shut up." The hurt look he received in return almost swayed the prefect, but he remained strong. By nature, Hibari was not a kind or compassionate person, and one measly herbivore would not change that. As if to reaffirm his decision, he gave the boy a glare. "Give me one good reason why I should not ignore you as the rest of the herbivores do?"

Tsuna seemed to be almost crestfallen, as the ghost boy evidently wracked his brains for a benefit of being his companion.

"I could be your invisible sidekick?"

The prefect didn't even bother to respond to that one.

"Nobody else has a ghost friend?"

Hibari had to refrain from rolling his eyes, and instead gave a small snort.

"... it'd be really cool?"

Just as Hibari was starting to speech up, intent upon ignoring the dead boy, Tsuna seemed to have come to a breakthrough.

"Oh wait! I can't find and see things that living people can't? Like, nobody would be able to tell if some ghost was around, I could... uh, help you patrol and whatever you do." The brunet finished lamely, feeling somewhat dejected that the one person who was able to see him wasn't interested. His head snapped up upon hearing Hibari's response.

"Fine." The prefect quirked an eyebrow, and they both continued their way. He absolutely refused to have been swayed by the mounting sad look on the herbivore's face.  _Absolutely_.

After a while awkward (at least to Tsuna) silence, Hibari finally spoke again. "Herbivore, it's quiet."

Seeing it as the sign of acceptance that it was, the brunet boy beamed, seemingly regaining his vigour and continued his story. Besides him, the skylark listened in silence, one side of his mouth quirked in an almost-smile.


	4. Chapter 4

A certain raven haired prefect had to forcefully refrain from twitching when a small, brown haired boy seemed to emerge  _through_  his second in command. He wasn't sure if the ghost boy did it on purpose, or genuinely didn't realise he was walking through people, but it had been happening for the entire week since they met. Hibari had gotten used to it – after the first time at least, where he instinctively tried to bite the brunet and ended up knocking a student out cold. Quirking an eyebrow in a silent command to wait, the skylark quickly dismissed Kusekabe before they talked. It really wouldn't do for Tetsu to see him talking to nothing, he might – god forbid – inform his parents. Suppressing a shiver, Hibari turned towards Tsuna.

"Is there a particular reason you came to me?" The prefect sounded harsher than he intended to be, and he had to squash any remorse he felt for the flinch Tsuna gave in response.

"I was... uh, I..." The brunet fidgeted for a moment, before a glare from the prefect cut through his indecision. "I just wanted to spend time together?" There was a hopeful look on the ghost's face, and Hibari's nonexistent heart gave a twinge.

"I'm busy." The skylark snapped, yet he didn't say no. Tsuna picked up on this, and even after a short time together, he had gotten enough of a grasp on Hibari's abrasive personality to know that meant he wasn't necessarily being rejected.

Tsuna smiled in relief – because even with the quiet evenings together, it was far too lonely during the day for the ghost, and he still could only barely believe that he wasn't going to spend the next year completely and utterly cut off from other people again.

"Have you done your patrols yet?"

The prefect seemed to twitch in annoyance, before he relented. "No."

The brunet beamed happily, and put on an air of expectation – resolved to wait until Hibari would start his patrols so they could go together. It was one of the few legitimate excuses Tsuna had for spending time with the prefect, without having to be ignored. Surprisingly enough, Hibari had no other work to complete, and so they both set out to roam the school and (in the prefect's case) brutally bite all the rule breakers, to  _death_. (Tsuna had found Hibari's catchphrase hilarious, and spent the first two days in his company making joking references to it, before the skylark had snapped. Hibari was frightening enough when angry that he could also scare the dead. Tsuna had wisely refrained from making any comments upon this.)

The patrols were usually relatively peaceful, at least when Hibari wasn't in the middle of beating students up – but the rule breaking rate had drastically gone down, much to the prefect's satisfaction. Sometimes Tsuna would fill the silence with chatter, with Hibari grunting here and there and at rare times, giving a full response. Other times the dead student preferred to float along in peace, simply content in the knowledge that he was with someone else, someone who knew he existed and would respond to him (in a way) if he felt like speaking. Hibari for his part didn't mind the brunet too much. Tsuna classified more as a small animal than a crowding herbivore anyway. It wasn't as if he could fully follow and thus break the rules set down for other students, and he would shut up when told (and he was one of the few people in existence that didn't shy away from the skylark), so the prefect was generally satisfied.

That particular patrol wasn't very different from the rest. Tsuna decided to fill the air with idle chatter, with Hibari nodding along every once in a while. There were very few rule breakers around, and so little interruptions for the two. The patrols took longer than they used to, when the prefect was alone – but not because they seemed to drag with company, but because Tsuna had informed him of all the hidden places he'd seen the rule breakers frequent. Hibari had a field day after finding out that particular information (the screams could be heard all day, inciting a new level of fear of the prefect in the student population).

They were in one of these recently discovered places when the sounds of student voices interrupted them, causing Tsuna to fall quiet and Hibari to freeze. The ghost went ahead to check what was going on, and the prefect rushed in straight after him after hearing Tsuna's cry of despair.

"Hey, do you think it's dead?" One of the delinquents asked mockingly, unaware of the distressed sounds coming out of the ghost present, or Hibari's arrival.

"Dunno man, but it–" His friend choked in surprise, having finally noticed the prefect.

"Hey man, what– oh shit." Following his friend's line of sight, the first delinquent also finally seemed to realise Hibari's presence.

The skylark for his part was enraged. Not even bothering to list their crimes for once, Hibari gave a feral glare.

" _I'll bite you to death_."

– x –

"I'm going to name it Hibird."

"No."

"But Hibird is so cute!"

The prefect's glare was lost on the excited brunet, whose attention was entirely focused upon the small yellow puffball that was currently recovering in the disciplinary office. Small white bandaged could be seen wrapped around the bird's left wing, holding the tiny makeshift splint that would allow it to heal properly.

The prefect couldn't help but feel a tinge of relief that the little bird was relatively unharmed. It had been knocked out, and given a broken wing (which he made sure to deliver tenfold back onto the perpetrators) but it would thankfully live. With Tsuna's apparent attachment to the bird, there was no doubt that they'd be nursing it back to health. Not that the prefect would have ever decided otherwise, even without the brunet insisting that they take care of it (he  _did_  have a soft spot for small animals).

Quirking a smile when the bird tweeted happily at the name – and wiping it off his face as soon as Tsuna turned towards him – the prefect gave in.

"Fine," he snapped, secretly pleased the animal was named after him (and his property, by extension).

The ghost student beamed, happily chattering with the newly christened Hibird, who happily chattered back. Animals always had a greater sensitivity towards the supernatural (which made it no wonder then, how Hibari managed to be the only one who could see him), but Hibird was as special as its namesake – being able to fully interact with the ghost, unlike many animals, which only ever realised that something was wrong whenever the brunet ghost was in the vicinity. It was a sad thing for said ghost – although he wouldn't have minded so much if he could leave the grounds long enough to scare that blasted Chihuahua his neighbour owned.

"Hibari! I'm going to go find some berries and stuff Hibird can eat okay? It can't hunt without its wing."

The prefect nodded, watching as the ghost student disappeared through the wall before looking back at the bird, who seemed to be now staring straight at him.

He extended his hand, raiding his fingers to create a perch for the bird, and gave it an expectant expression. To the prefect's delight, the bird seemed to have gotten the message, happily trilling 'hibird' at its accomplishment.

"Hn."

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to keep the thing.


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey, Hibari. Don't you ever go home?"

The prefect's eye twitched, but he otherwise remained unaffected, as if he hadn't heard anything.

"Eh, Hibari? Can you hear me?"

Keeping his head down, the skylark resolved to focus upon his infernal paperwork, and  _not_  humour the ghost that seemed to have made the disciplinary office his new home.

"Hibari...? Please don't ignore me."

Was that a hurt tone? Yes it was. Swallowing his guilt – and the prefect had been feeling that emotion far too often around the little ghost boy to feel comfortable with it – the prefect tried, again, to finish reading the sentence he was on. After a few moments of blessed silence, the skylark heard a sniff.

Whipping his head around to look at the ghost herbivore, the prefect was relieved to note the absence of tears (he found out that ghost still could, unfortunately, cry). Sighing, and resigning himself for a build up of paperwork, Hibari put him pen down – fighting the urge to smile when the Tsuna perked up happily at the action, a smile overtaking the saddened look he wore only a moment before.

"Well?" The prefect asked, meaning to sound snappish, but failing to hide the amusement in his tone.

Tsuna gestured towards the window, which depicted the darkening sky outside. Not a single other student could be seen on campus, and almost all other lights, besides that of the disciplinary office, were off. Hibari raised a questioning eyebrow, as if he couldn't see the problem.

"It's  _late_."

Hibari still had that uncomprehending look on his face, and the brunet sighed before elaborating.

"Shouldn't you be at home? Every normal student leaves before it gets dark."

The prefect scoffed, before declaring. "It is obvious that I'm not some average herbivore."

The brunet was tempted to throw his hands in the air. Hibari Kyoya was a creature in a class of its own.

"What about your family?" The ghost boy pressed on, refusing to acknowledge Hibari's last response.

"I have no need for such herbivorous things."

Tsuna rolled his eyes at the predicable response, and got a rubber through the head for his trouble. The brunet pouted.

"It's not polite to throw things through people," he muttered.

The prefect smirked in response, before picking up his pen again, and going back to his paperwork. It seemed to be the end of the conversation, yet it had gotten Tsuna thinking. Hibari was almost  _always_  at school. Tsuna usually got bored of seeing Hibari do paperwork, and often left to find something interesting for the night, but besides that and the few times Hibari disappears – it would seem that the prefect had no other place to go. Tsuna frowned, worried about his new friend. He would keep a closer eye on the older boy.

Over the next few days, the brunet ghost found himself more and more dissatisfied. After enlisting the help of Hibird – who turned out to be a clever little thing – they took turns in watching the prefect go about his day. Tsuna happily noticed that the prefect preferred to nap within the nest he'd made (and resolved he go back to make it even more comfortable), but other than that, the prefect's habits were either deathly boring or outright unhealthy.

Hibari, asides from his naps, rarely got any breaks. The prefect often started his work early, and finished late, many times working through lunch without break. Tsuna doubted he could have convinced the skylark to lower himself to mingle with the lunchtime crowds – oh the blasphemy – but he wished that the prefect would go to get food sometime. Unless Kusekabe brought something, Tsuna never saw the other boy eat.

Of course the prefect had other worrying habits – such as his lack of rest, and unwillingness to go home – but he was adamantly tight lipped on anything so personal as his home situation, and this at least was something Tsuna at least could help with.

Looking discretely at Hibird, who was flapping beside him, Tsuna whipered.

"Operation, get Hibari to eat lunch: go!"

Hibird trilled happily, and the ghost boy panicked, trying to get her to be quiet. It was a stealth mission, after all.

"Now... I wonder what Hibari would like to eat?" Tsuna cocked his head to the side in contemplation. He'd been dead for so long that most things regarding essential life processes – such as eating – had been forgotten. His own memories didn't provide much help. He had never eaten at school – either too afraid to go to the cafeteria for food, or losing his money to bullies for he got the chance. Sometimes his mother had time to make him a lunch box, but it wasn't as if he could go ask her for one now.

"Ah!" Hitting his palm with a fist in realisation, Tsuna decided. "I can make him a lunch. I don't think it's too difficult... right, Hibird?"

He took the answering trill as a yes.

It turns out, cooking in general was much harder than other people made it seem. Having had Hibird stand on lookout – Tsuna snuck into one of the empty home economics classrooms, intent on using it to make Hibari some lunch. It was honestly the first time he messed around in a classroom as such. Even though he could touch inanimate objects (but not anything living, for some odd reason), Tsuna thus far, had been too afraid to mess around. Fantasies of ghost rumours spreading had plagued him, and for a time the brunet was worried they'd call in an exorcist and banish him to nonexistence.

Phasing out to get rid of the food that has practically exploded to cover him in gunk, Tsuna despaired. Cooking was far harder than it looked! He would have given up completely, but the last time he did, and resolved to find some other way of getting food, a student almost caught him carrying a packet of melon bread. He'd dropped it right away of course, but alas, it hadn't stopped a couple of stories about magical flying bread from being told. Tsuna didn't have the nerves to try again (and risk his eventual exorcism), no matter how worried he was about the prefect.

Tsuna sniffled, before phasing back in so he could grab a sponge and clean up the mess he'd made. It seemed like he couldn't do anything right, whether alive or dead. Scrubbing at the fallen food, the ghost boy decided that he'd at least get his one thing right – if only to save Hibari's poor stomach from starvation.

Several cooking attempts and one nasty fire accident later – which might have killed him  _again_ , had he not already been dead, the results of Tsuna's efforts lay proudly upon the worktop. Fluffy white, if not slightly drooping, rice balls sat next to a simple bowl of soup. Tsuna couldn't actually smell the food, but it looked nice enough, so hopefully it would taste nice as well.

A high pitched trill broke Tsuna out of his thoughts, and had him immediately scrambling to clean up a little, and make sure everything was off. Someone was coming. After a moment, Tsuna himself could hear the steps along the hallway, and the ghost cringed, hearing them stop outside the classroom he was in. The brunet ducked behind a counter, forgetting that most people couldn't actually see him.

The door opened, and a familiar voice rang out.

"There you are."

Peeking over the desktop, the ghost boy caught sight of Hibird perched on one of Hibari's fingers. The prefect had on an indulgent smile, and the little yellow bird was trilling happily. Noticing the presence of another, Hibari looked up sharply, one hand halfway towards his tonfa, before he realised who it was, and relaxed a little.

"Herbivore, what are you doing?"

Tsuna came out of hiding, looking shyly at the prefect, before indicating towards the food.

"I was w-worried that Hibari didn't eat enough."

Hibari glanced at the cooling food, before looking around and noticing the new burn mark, alongside several patches of spilled food that Tsuna had forgotten to clean up, his face blank.

"I mean, you don't have to eat it, or anything! I j-just thought I'd try making something for you."

The brunet looked miserable, his imaginary bunny ears drooping low. Swallowing a sigh, the prefect went forwards and grabbed a rice ball, a fond look passing over his face when Tsuna seemed to perk up.

"You couldn't make me do anything if you tried, herbivore."

Hibari smirked, before taking a bite out of the food, and started choking.

Tsuna panicked, wondering what he was supposed to do for a moment, before the prefect croaked out a need for water. Grabbing a cup, he poured some water from the tap before thrusting it towards Hibari. The older boy immediately downed the drink, coughing a few more times afterwards, but having finally stopped choking.

"What," Hibari demanded. "Did you put in that?"

Tsuna backed away in fear. The prefect looked livid, and he was advancing forward. Trying not to cry at his failure, the ghost cringed backwards and whimpered.

"I-I'm sorry, Hibari-san." Tsuna sniffled. "I just wanted to help."

The prefect looked on at the brunet ghost, seeing him cringe and whimper, and all his anger seemed to deflate.

Heaving a sigh, Hibari stepped closer, ignoring how Tsuna flinched at the action. "Relax, herbivore."

Tsuna peeked up at the older boy from behind his bangs. "You're not mad?"

"No." It took the prefect some considerable effort to say that – since he was mad, but was seemingly incapable of directing his anger upon the quivering ghost boy ahead of him. It was, dare he say it, worth it when the brunet sported that ridiculously relieved expression on his face.

Turning around to go back to his room – with every intention to scrub the taste from his mouth – Hibari paused at the door.

"I'll expect better tomorrow, herbivore."

The prefect left, missing how Tsuna's eyes widened in realisation, before a happy smile took over the shorter boy's face. He was getting another chance.


	6. Chapter 6

Consciousness returned slowly to one Hibari Kyoya, and the prefect was content to lie in a lazy doze for a moment or two before slowly opening his eyes. The skylark immediately hissed, grabbing a nearby tonfa to swipe it through the face of whatever herbivore dared sneak up on him while he was asleep.

 _Through_? Hibari blinked for a moment, mind still fuzzy from his slumber. The prefect never claimed to be a morning person.

"Herbivore." The raven haired boy sighed in recognition, relaxing slightly as he looked back towards one startled brunet ghost, who had jumped back at the attack, despite knowing it wouldn't have hurt him.

"H-Hibari." The ghost's shaky voice greeted him back, and Hiabri wished he could fall back into sleep. It was far too early for this.

"You stayed the night again." It wasn't a question, but Hibari nodded regardless. He didn't see it as a problem, unlike one Sawada Tsunayoshi did.

"Was there something you needed?" The prefect asked, bypassing another conversation about his living habits.

"Ah," Tsuna perked up. "It's almost when you wake up anyway, but I thought I should tell you that some students are already here and they, uh," the ghost fidgeted, saying the next part in a rush. "They're vandalising some classroom on the second floor."

Tsuna watched as comprehension slowly dawned on Hibari's face – which was easy enough to read once you got to know him – before pure righteous fury overtook his features, and the prefect grabbed his tonfa, disregarding any thought of further conversation until after he put those vandals in the hospital.

Tsuna sighed, looking towards Hibird as he did so. The bird had been his constant companion when she wasn't with Hibari, and the ghost had taken to talking out loud to her.

"It's really getting worrisome, Hibird. I wonder if there's anything else we can do?"

Tsuna cocked his head to the side in thought, immediately dismissing any notion of making the prefect something to eat. After last time, and even when given another chance, Tsuna didn't want to push his luck. Eventually, and idea came to him, and the ghost boy perked up in excitement. It could work.

"Hey Hibird, I have a great idea."

– x –

Hibari stalked the corridors during lunchtime, his mouth twisted in a frown for having to deal with more crowding than usual. He was partially paranoid about his school, having caught some imbeciles trying to sully it at a time, they assumed, he would not be around. The other reason he was out and about, rather than within the solitary confines of his disciplinary office, was small, dead, and brunet.

Tsuna had taken to mothering him recently, and Hibari honestly didn't know how to react. His own mother had never done anything of the sort (the prefect shuddered at the mere thought), and nobody else in his life had dared try to command him in such a way. Plus, it was rare enough that someone actually cared. Kusekabe was one example, but even he never tried to get Hibari to do anything, instead trying to appeal to the prefect's desires to entice him into doing things – such as by producing his favourite snacks or reasons (and not excuses, Hibari would need no excuse for his actions) the prefect could use to take a break from work and have a nap. Because Kusekabe was the closest, thus far, that anyone had ever gotten to  _mothering_  him, Hibari was entirely unaware over the appropriate response.

Quite honestly, he simply itched to bite anything that annoyed him – or had him, in any sense of the word, confused – to death, and be done with it. Unfortunately, Tsuna was already dead, and so far Hibari had yet to find out a means to kill the dead. Not that he particularly wanted to be rid of the brunet. It was simply the principle of the thing.

However he couldn't bite the ghost to death, so for once in his life, Hibari Kyoya was lost as what to do. He tried being mad at the other boy's disastrous cooking attempts, but Hibari was fond of little animals, and right then, Tsuna looked like an injured animal he'd just kicked when it was already down. If Hibari was anything, he was not a person who kicked small animals (humans, definitely, he'd break their bones with a smile – but not little animals) and so getting mad was out. Teaching the little ghost to cook took up far more time than he had – especially considering that the brunet was cooking for him because the prefect was so busy  _anyway_  (and Hibari couldn't quite place the odd warm feeling he got whenever Tsuna tried to care for him; it was foreign and weird and he didn't know whether he loved or hated it. Sadly enough it also couldn't be bitten to death).

Alas, Hibari's inner conflict seemed to have no resolve, even as he came across what could only be the latest in one of Tsuna's schemes to take care of his health. Hibari blanked, staring at the light pink, heart shaped post-it note as if it had just reared up and attacked him. The words, ' _don't forget to have a drink Hibari!_ ' were scrawled upon the offending piece of paper, and Hibari was immensely relieved that it wasn't in glitter pen at least. Below the note was a small can of green tea (that Tsuna presumably had taken from the nearby vending machine), slightly dented, and also stuck to the wall with a mass of sellotape.

The first thing that crossed through the prefect's head was a resounding ' _what_ '.

Then his brain kick-started into gear, and Hibari plucked the note from the wall and placed it in his pocket. Then, with a quick swipe of a small blade – something not many people would think he'd carry around, but it was turned out be very convenient in situations such as these – Hibari dislodged the drink, and took it down as well. No doubt his name on the note had scared off any potential poachers looking for a free drink, but the prefect wasn't going to risk leaving it there. For all he knew, someone might try to poison it instead. He really hoped that the heart shape of the paper was more out of necessity than preference – it wasn't as if Tsuna could go pick and buy them himself, so he must have nabbed them from somewhere. Hibari didn't exactly mind that Tsuna simply took things. After all, the ghost boy wasn't some petty thief, he had no need for anything of monetary value, and it wasn't often than he did so anyway. Hibari had likened it to a small animal foraging for things, and the image it had brought to mind had a smile quirked on his face.

That wasn't, by far, the last post-it note that Hibari came across in the following days. Small reminders to take care of himself, stay motivated or take a nap could be found along the corridors, stuck to walls, windows, notice boards and even once, the middle of the floor. It had been amusing to see the regular herbivores keep at least a metre's distance from the note while walking – as if afraid to anger the prefect by trampling it. Every once in a while a snack was left too – simple things like the tea, or a rice ball, which Hibari could enjoy. The prefect hadn't wanted any rumours to start about missing food – and given that he was the one eating it, he certainly didn't want to be accused of petty theft – so he'd taken to leaving some change on his desk, noticing in satisfaction that it was gone a while later with a note in its place.

What had been even more amusing were the rumours that did make it around. Speculation ran rampant among the students, wondering which suicidal girl – for they assumed it was a female with a crush on him, to which Hibari had made a sound suspiciously like a snort – would be so bold to confront the prefect in such a manner. Students had been even more shocked when, instead of ripping the notes down and burning then, before going on a rampage to find the offender, Hibari always gently plucked the notes and put them in his pocket. One student swore he'd seen Hibari smiling.

The result of this was that many of the rule breakers in the school had become scared – or paranoid at the very least – of the female population. The notes were  _everywhere_ , and whoever did it never got caught, so each student would never be able to tell if the perpetrator was hiding amongst the masses, watching their wrongdoings to report it – somehow – back to Hibari. They weren't far off the mark, although they should have been more wary of an invisible brunet ghost instead.

Hibari had watched it all develop with growing amusement, content to let things play out. Although Tsuna was busier scurrying around to place notes, the result was pleasing enough that the prefect didn't mind. The students were behaving better than before, although the paranoid mentality couldn't be good for their mental health – something that Hibari happily didn't care about. Plus, as Hibari watched the little ghost and his bird companion trying to sneak around – as if he didn't know who was the one placing the notes everywhere – with something akin to affection, he didn't quite want to ruin Tsuna's fun yet.


	7. Chapter 7

Anyone who knows Hibari Kyoya is under the impression that he doesn't attend class, and quite rightly so. Hibari had gone on something much akin to a crusade when he entered the school, a one man quest to prove that he didn't need the schooling of attending classes themselves – which  _obviously_  was something only for herbivores. Few brave souls have voiced the much thought of question of why he comes to school at all, but there was nobody with the power to tell him otherwise, so any protest against Hibari's attendance in Namimori middle – if any – quickly died out. His presence was quickly accepted, lest the sharp bite on a tonfa be felt for all those who dared approach him, and attending school, which simultaneously skipping out on lessons was something quickly accepted as one of Hibari's quirks by the student body.

While most of the students agreed it was simply Hibari being a sticker for rules in his own odd way – although many also entertained the idea he simply enjoyed lording over others – a few rumours spread about him raising an army (the Disciplinary Committee), brainwashing others to follow him (again, the Disciplinary Committee), or needing an outlet for his bloodthirsty ways (upon the entire student body). A select few students who heard the last rumour were also convinced that the prefect was in fact a vampire (often they were heard quoting his favourite catchphrase in desperation, as if that was all the proof needed that the school prefect wasn't human), but mostly, the topic of Hibari's class attendance was an untouched upon subject – practically taboo after his violent protest of the entire notion.

Alas, there was one brave soul, who dared bring up the forbidden subject. Tsuna, if nothing else, could have counted himself lucky he couldn't die, for all the things he had done to or with the school prefect would surely have led him to be killed again if that was possible. (His stint with the post it notes was still affecting the rumour mill even two weeks later. Schoolgirls were still being treated with caution.)

"Hibari," Tsuna started one morning, unknowingly deciding to bring ruin upon the school. "Why don't you ever go to classes?"

"Classes are for herbivores." The prefect snapped. His aversion to them had nothing to do with being forced in close proximity with the herbivores, no. He wasn't  _claustrophobic_  or anything – Hibari Kyoya wasn't afraid of  _anything_. He simply didn't  _need_  the classes, that was all.

"People who skip classes are delinquents, aren't they?" Tsuna asked, tilting his head to the side as he continued to wreck through flimsy logic that really should have been left alone. "I thought you said they were the biggest herbivores within the school."

The prefect twitched, and a large sense of foreboding came across him. He didn't deign to answer that, but it seemed his almost imperceptible sneer upon his face seemed to do it for him. Tsuna nodded happily, and the prefect felt betrayed by his own expressions. How had the fluffy animal gotten so good at reading them in the first place?

"Then," Tsuna said, drawing the word out childishly. "Wouldn't that make you one too?"

Tsuna had a death wish. He had one cast for the entire school too apparently. Maybe it was his form of revenge.

"I," Hibari hissed. "Am not a  _herbivore_."

"But you skip class." Tsuna pointed out nonchalantly. He really must have felt wronged by the school, to incense Hibari Kyoya so. Given that the prefect couldn't take his anger out upon a dead student, he always had to substitute with a live one. It was rather unfortunate for the student population, when Tsuna decided to poke fun at and annoy the prefect. Through the boredom of some sort of immortal existence, he simply must have forgotten the sheer price of medical expenses.

"Only herbivores need to go to class." Hibari reaffirmed, as if his immediate existence depended upon that statement. It probably did.

"So you don't need to go to class."

"Exactly," the prefect confirmed, satisfied he'd gotten his point across.

"Why?" Or maybe not.

Hibari deliberated over the question for a moment, wondering how he should respond. In all honestly, it was simply a mixture of he didn't want to, and that he had a job prepared for him anyway, so he didn't need to – although it was mostly the former, and unfortunately 'I don't want to' didn't work on Tsuna as it did the rest of the human population. It was at times like these that Hibari wondered why he hadn't simply pretended that the ghost boy didn't exist.

 _Because I said so_. No.

 _Because I'm not a herbivore._  Circular logic.

 _Bite the herbivore to death for his impudence_. Sadly remains an impossible task.

"Because I don't want to."

 _Shit_.

Glancing at the brunet, the prefect felt something akin to a chill run down his back at the smile the ghost boy wore.

– x –

He had not been tricked into doing this.

At least, that's what Hibari told himself as he lounged on one of the school desks at the back of a classroom he didn't need to be in. He didn't need to prove himself better than all the herbivores either, it was simply an added bonus of the deal he had  _not_  been tricked into.

Really.

The problem was, that regardless of all else, Hibari had been raised to stay true to his word – and his through entire life, that is exactly what he had done. Lying was for herbivores. Promises were for herbivores too, because everything you said should be held in the same regard as a promise. So when he said he didn't need to go to class, and that he was a carnivore and not one of those simpering herbivorous rule breakers who skipped when they couldn't afford to, Hibari had meant every word. Of course he also didn't need to go to class because school simply prepared you for life, and he had gotten his life sorted out ages ago, but Hibari wasn't one to take the easy route out – he could justify his absence from class perfectly by his own merit alone. Also, he didn't have a good explanation for why he decided to go to school then, in the first place.

'I was bored' wasn't an excuse Hibari Kyoya would ever utter, no matter how true it was.

Thankfully, the prefect managed to blend in with the back of the class, hiding away in the far corner, away from the windows. His black uniform was really useful in cases such as these.

Maybe if he only had something to prove, then Hibari wouldn't have gone to the trouble of appearing in class. He might have been a petty person, but there was only so far he'd go to do things he really didn't want to. Yet it was brought to his attention that since he'd never been in a class – and the disciplinary committee in general didn't attend either – there could have been numerous cases of rule breaking occurring without his knowledge. Hibari would not run a school where the classes were subpar and exempt from his grasp.

Hence, he was observing. It was only for the one lesson, afterwards he would force the committee members in class so that they could report to him of any ongoing transgressions, so one lesson really wouldn't hurt. He simply needed to know firsthand what went on, and then he could retreat to his den.

_The prefect tightened his grip upon his tonfa, and told himself he could survive an hour without biting the annoying, crowding herbivores to death._

It hadn't really helped that Tsuna decided to sit in with him and enjoy his misery – which is what Hibari had gotten out of 'just seeing how it goes'. Honestly, if he wasn't a dead – and fairly adorable, not that Hibari would ever admit  _that_  - herbivore with nothing better to do (and if it were possible for Hibari to actually bite him), then the prefect wouldn't have humoured him in this. Hibari was sure he could drive the ghost away with harsh words if nothing else, to sulk in class by himself, but he wasn't cruel to small animals, even, or maybe especially, to dead ones.

"Oh look Hibari, class is starting!"

The prefect twitched, but refrained from responding lest he be heard by others. Simply because he'd never been in class before didn't mean he couldn't figure out when it was starting. The pathetic herbivorous teacher had just walked in, and Hibari crinkled his nose. He could smell the sweat off him from a mile away; what were such dirty herbivores doing in his school? Maybe the brunet ghost actually had a point.

The teacher stalked to the front of the room, and slammed his briefcase down on his desk. Hibari raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. It might have been hot, but such agitation was unprofessional. The prefect's hands twitched, as the urge to bite the herbivore arose.

Maybe twenty minutes later, Hibari was ready to snap. This herbivore – Nezu, who didn't deserve the title of a teacher – was an utter failure at imparting any sort of knowledge. He demanded people to understand the answers to problems he didn't teach, and had taken to ruthlessly attacking any student who failed. In so far, he was mostly picking upon some random and unassuming herbivore in glasses, which was utterly unacceptable. Hibari didn't care about the glasses herbivore, especially if he was weak enough to be stood all over as such, but his school would not employ incompetent teachers, and would not advocate bullying, by teachers no less. He was  _this close_ to standing up and crushing the herbivore's skull, before he froze at the teachers next words.

"God, you're just as pathetic as Useless Tsuna." The teacher sneered at his student. "Failures like that deserve to have died."

Hibari saw red.

One quick glance to the side saw him the stricken look on his ghostly companion's face. Evidently, the brunet had not planned for this to happen, or at least in this manner. The teacher's incompetence was probably something Tsunayoshi had wanted to show him, but to be humiliated in such a manner, even after he had  _died_ , was unprecedented. Hibari would not allow such transgressions to go on.

The prefect stood up, deliberately scraping his chair to draw attention to him. A few students around him paled dramatically, but he only had eyes for the herbivore failing to teach the class, noting in satisfaction how he started to sweat even more.

"H-Hibari-kun..."

The prefect stalked forwards, allowing more and more of his ire to show.

" _Herbivore._ " He growled, and Nezu flinched. "I'll bite you..."

He stopped in front of the whimpering teacher, and took out his tofa.

"To  _death_."

Nezu squeaked, falling backwards in fear. A dark patch of liquid formed around him, and Hibari grimaced in disgust as the teacher wet himself.


	8. Chapter 8

The rhythmic taps of shoes hitting the floor echoed slightly within the empty school corridor. A small, childish part of Hibari enjoyed the sound simply because he likened it to the marching of going to war, but he was mostly content by the fact that he could only hear his own shoes, and that he was blessedly alone.

Glancing to the side, and seeing his ghostly companion scurry out of his line of sight, Hibari had to rectify the thought.  _Mostly_  alone.

The prefect surprisingly didn't mind being stalked in the manner he was, in fact any amount of irritation over his solitude being broken had long faded and the prefect only became annoyed when the ghost boy excluded herbivorous behaviour – which admittedly was almost always – but Hibari wasn't annoyed simply for being in the same space as Tsuna, as he was with every other human existence.

It might have been the lack of noise – Tsuna's feet didn't make the same majestic tapping sounds his did (although when it came from the feet of others, it wasn't majestic in the slightest) – or that the ghost didn't need to breathe and contaminate his air, but Hibari was indeed content with being in the presence of the brunet. He only wondered when Tsuna would actually realise that fact.

Of course, Hibari wouldn't go out of his way to tell him.

The ghost skittered out of his line of sight once more, and Hibari swallowed a sigh, stopping abruptly. Unfortunately, his lack of warning and Tsuna's slow reaction time meant that they end up colliding – or would have. Hibari gave the smallest of shudders when Tsuna went stumbling through him. A lesser man may have screamed seeing another person simply emerge from their chest, arm first, but the prefect was not a lesser man. Still, he wasn't in any way keen to repeat the experience.

The ghost barely refrained from tripping as he swung around.

"H-Hibari-san?"

The prefect grimaced. Tsuna only added an honorific if he felt he messed up and that Hibari was furious. What he was supposed to have messed up on was completely lost on the older boy – if anything he was furious that his school employed such herbivorous scum as  _Nezu_ , but that had nothing to do with the brunet boy. In fact, if anything, Hibari should be pleased Tsuna had pointed out a serious oversight he'd made in his regulation.

Yet it was evident that Tsuna really and honestly was worried. He was fidgeting, and avoiding the prefect's eyes, and he had that horrible kicked puppy look on his face that made Hibari want to bite everything to death. If Hibari didn't find out what was wrong (and then tell the silly herbivore it was stupid) then the ghost would be sad and dejected for days at the very least. The prefect knew this for a fact, after the ghost had gotten the same picked puppy look everytime he saw food after the 'cooking incident'.

Sadly enough, Hibari was still human – no matter  _what_  the student body said – and didn't have the ability to convey his thoughts without speaking. So then, he'd have to speak. At least to reassure (remind, he told himself) the ghost that nothing was wrong.

The prefect spent another moment staring intently at the ghost, just to make sure he couldn't in fact, convey his thought telepathically. If ghosts existed, then why couldn't he have something supernatural?

"Hibari...san?"

He spent too long staring.

Deciding to forego any attempt at properly using language to convey what he wanted said, Hibari went with the first thing in his mind.

"Herbivore."

He had a slightly one track mind.

"Yes?" Tsuna asked, starting to feel even more apprehensive at Hibari's behaviour.

"You're being stupid."

No, no that was the wrong thing to say. Tsuna's face only became sadder, and Hibari  _really_  wanted to bite something. How could he still be bad at this after so long together? There should be some rule that people just understood each other without words after a certain amount of time. He could do it with the dead herbivore – although that might be because he was an open book, but still.

"I'm not mad."

There, there was no way for that to go wrong.

"You're just saying that," the ghost mumbled dejectedly.

Hibari felt like pulling hair. Or biting. Or both. He wanted to do both.

"I do not say things I do not mean, herbivore." The prefect paused. "Unless you want to call me a liar."

Tsuna immediately became flustered. "No, no! Of course not!"

"Then I'm not mad." Hibari reiterated.

"But... why not?"

"Why should I be?"

The brunet visibly slumped, taking a step back and avoiding eye contact. "Because you had to hear... that. Sensei was right; I was completely useless you know." Tsuna swallowed, his voice cracking. "Everyone who realised how bad at everything I was left, and well, you're good at everything right?"

Hibari had no idea where this was going. He kept his face blank. Tsuna continued anyway, taking that as an affirmative.

"So why would you want to be friends with someone who's so useless? You probably thought I was something I'm not."

What? The prefect honestly couldn't understand how in any way the brunet came to that conclusion. Was that how herbivores thought? It was frightening, and Hibari had never been more glad he wasn't one, even if that meant he had no idea why his ghost companion was so sad about the ramblings of a disgusting herbivore that was even more herbivorous than the brunet himself.

Suddenly, Hibari was mad. How could the brunet think of such stupid things? The prefect found a surprising amount of anger directed at the herbivorous student and teacher population as well. It was obvious that those lesser beings had made the small animal think in such ridiculous ways. He'd bite them all to death – just right after he told his ghost companion how ridiculous he was being.

"Do not presume to know what I would think. I do not care for the ridiculous notions of the other herbivores." Tsuna was wide eyed while Hibari continued. "If I didn't wish to spend time with you, I would have dismissed you already. I already know that you're a herbivore, and I haven't sent you away so banish those ridiculous notions already."

Hibari hmphed in superiority, secretly very proud of himself for managing to string together a few sentences without insulting the other boy for being so idiotic. He counted it as a victory when a wobbly smile slowly made its way across the brunet's face.

"Yeah, you're right."

The prefect would have scoffed. "Of course I am."

Suddenly the brunet laughed. "Thanks Hibari." He grinned. "You should be a councillor or something."

The prefect refrained from rolling his eyes, and continued onwards. At least his herbivore was happy again.

– x –

To be perfectly honest, when Tsuna made that thoughtless comment a few days past, he never seriously meant it, or god forbid, anything come of it. Then the school councillor had gotten sick, and suddenly there was a vacancy that needed to be filled as soon as possible.

"You told me to."

Tsuna sweat dropped. He didn't do anything of the sort. And hell, even if he did, that in no way meant Hibari had to listen! He didn't listen to half the crap Tsuna said on a daily basis anyway, so how had he latched onto that one comment?

"I don't think I meant for you to become the temporary councillor, Hibari."

"I've already told them I would do it." The prefect replied. "My school will not go without a councillor."

' _I'm sure they're hoping you'll back out,'_ Tsuna thought. ' _They probably really want you to back out.'_

Tsuna decided not to voice this. Insinuating in any way that Hibari wouldn't be good at something – no matter how true – wasn't a good idea.

"Isn't there someone else who could fill in?" Tsuna protested weakly. "You're already so busy."

"No." Hibari replied, but his tone was a little softer. "I said I would do it."

Tsuna understood what that meant. Anything that Hibari said he would do, he would do, no matter what. Not even fear of death (Hibari, afraid of death? Ridiculous.) would dissuade him when he started on something. Tsuna slumped.

"Fine."

"Good," the prefect replied. He secretly was very amused at the small animal's reaction. His hair became even more puffed up when he was worried, it was like watching an angry rabbit.

Plus, how hard could counselling be? All he had to do was tell the herbivores how stupid they were being, and he would be done. Plus, he genuinely wouldn't allow his school to be subpar in any way, and so it required a counselling service. Hibari wasn't looking forwards to the task, but he in no way dreaded it. He was decidedly neutral, and couldn't care less about talking to herbivores if he didn't care so much about his school. The fluffy brunet's reaction was an added bonus.

Later, Hibari would take back his words. He severely wanted to bite the crying student to death. He could feel his hands twitch every time she let out another sob, and Hibari had to physically refrain from snarling when she blew her nose while they were in the same room. Disgusting herbivore.

"A-and he–" sob "–just told me to stop being so annoying." The student (Hibari hadn't bothered to remember her name) wailed.

So her mate was neglectful. The prefect didn't see the problem.

"Then leave the herbivore."

"But I–" cry "–love him!"

Hibari scoffed at the ridiculous notion.

"He's a herbivore."

"What does that even  _mean_?" She wailed.

"Herbivores are weak, pathetic creatures. You would not mate with a weakling, would you?"

Hibari asked as if the answer was obvious, which to him, it was. The natural hierarchy of the world was in place for a reason. A weak mate was an inadequate provider and would be unable to produce strong genes for pups and the care needed to raise them.

Hibari voiced this.

"Would you mate with a herbivore like that to raise your offspring?"

The girl looked entirely baffled. She blinked, forgetting to cry for a moment. After a few seconds, a look of realisation came over her face.

"You're right!"

Hibari nodded. Of course he was.

"If he's such a jerk to me, there's no way he could be relied upon long term. He'd be a jerk father too." She huffed. "It was going nowhere if we can't eventually settle down. We'd have to break up eventually anyway."

Hibari nodded once more. That's exactly what he said. He felt a rush of pride for this nameless herbivore. She had, against the odds, understood exactly what he meant. He felt like giving her a pat on the head as reward, but she'd been crying and he didn't want to touch her so he refrained.

The student grinned. "Thank you Hibari-sempai!"

She stood up and bowed, before rushing out of the room. The prefect sat back, inwardly preening. That wasn't so hard.

Later, he found out the girl had cast aside her boyfriend. Apparently, he was arguing against it so much, she snapped and called him a 'pathetic herbivore'. The boyfriend was so shocked, he let her stomp away. By the end of the day, half the student population was convinced he was brainwashing people into following his ideology.

When Tsuna rushed up to him later, slightly panicked about the rumours, as well as worried about how the counselling session went, Hibari merely smirked.

Tsuna had fallen into an even greater panic.


	9. Chapter 9

Kusakabe Tetsuya was indefinitely loyal to his leader. Hibari had saved him on multiple occasions, the first and foremost from a life of disaster. When Tetsuya was still a young and cocky upstart – getting in with the wrong crowd and making his mother cry herself to sleep each night – he had met the young Hibari, who came in tonfas blazing to clean up Namimori for good. It was a long and hard war between the delinquent groups and Hibari, but the then-child had won, bulldozing through enemies like he was the incarnation of Asura.

Tetsuya could only count himself lucky he was close enough to the young Hibari in age, and strong enough to gain the other boy's attention. After being forcefully drafted as Hibari's underling, Tetsyua had at first, rebelled. He'd gone against ordered, put Hibari in danger and disrupted Namimori on purpose. Looking back, he counted himself lucky he hadn't been killed.

The fact that he hadn't only cemented his loyalty even more.

No, instead of putting him in a grave – although he was put in a hospital more than once more his behaviour – Hibari was relentless in getting Tetsuya to listen. He fought with the older boy every day, until finally, the ex-delinquent could see the errors of his ways. By the time he realised, he was already on the right track through Hibari's sheer force of will. Tetsuya was given a chance to mend his family, have a future, and the opportunity to serve someone as respectable as Hibari. And when he finally figured it out, the prefect had given him another choice, to stay on willingly, or leave.

Tetsuya had not since then regretted staying with Hibari.

Alas, for all that Hibari was noble, respectable and a man of his word – he was also indefinitely  _odd_. He spoke in animal metaphors for one, and it had taken Tetsuya a while to get past that, and even longer (with the aid of several documentaries) to fully understand it. He didn't acknowledge any form of social hierarchy outside his own, and although his own (eventually) made sense and coincided with a good set of morals, it had led Tetsuya having to clean up a number of sticky situations. In fact, he didn't share the same social values most people did. Things like looks and popularity were lost to him. Tetsuya was only thankful he still wore clothes instead of demanding that nakedness was the natural order of things.

(Tetsuya still had no idea why he insisted upon them wearing regent hairstyles. Perhaps to signify their past lives of delinquents? Nobody could quite figure it out.)

Despite his shortcomings however, Hibari was a leader worth serving and protecting, and Tetsuya prided himself in being able to do that.

So when he walked in on his leader talking to himself, the second in command was reasonably worried.

Hibari might have been a little odd, but he wasn't delusional, was he? Not that Tetsuya would think any less of him if he did have delusions – his own grandmother had a mild case of psychosis – but if Hibari did, and Tetsuya didn't know, he would have been failing as a right hand man. What if he thought something horrific had happened, and had to suffer through it alone?

No, Tetusya wouldn't allow that. If something was up with Hibari, he would know.

– x –

Tetsuya glanced round the corner, before quickly retreating. He was not, in any way, a stalker. He was a responsible right hand man, who simply had to follow his leader around to make sure he was entirely alright.

It was  _not_  stalking.

Hibari made a small  _hmm_  sound, and the second in command tensed. Hibari didn't make sounds without reason – he absolutely cherished silence. That  _hmm_  had to be in response to something, to someone, but when Tetusya glanced around once more, there was nothing there.

Oh dear, he was right, wasn't he? Hibari was seeing things, and he hadn't known at all. What a horrible second in command he was, to not know something so important about his boss. That  _hmm_ was a symbol of all his incompetence. Oh lord, he'd never be able to view the sound the same ever again.

"Tetsuya."

The dark haired man froze. Almost mechanically, he walked out from his hiding place, coming up to Hibari and presenting him with a low bow.

"Hibari-san." He greeted the other boy. "Is there anything you need?" ' _Or would like to tell me?'_

"I think peach green tea would be good today."

For the second time in a short period, Tetsuya froze. That was a  _hmm_  of contemplation! Of course Hibari would be able to sense him. He wasn't a bad right hand man after all.

"Of course, Hibari-san!"

Tears of relief sprung to his eyes, and Tetsuya rushed away to get his leader his tea.

Unknown to the second in command, a small brunet ghost watched him go while giggling.

– x –

When Tetsuya walked in on Hibari talking to himself once more, dread made itself known. Had he been mistaken? Was tea some elaborate distraction to the real problem at hand? Was Hibari ashamed of something he couldn't help, or did he simply not trust Tetsuya?

No, maybe there was a perfectly fine explanation for this. Maybe Hibari had finally grown out of his technophobia and had gotten himself a headset. He could be talking to as real person, for all Tetsuya knew, and the taller boy was simply making a big deal out of absolutely nothing.

But then, who would Hibari be talking to? The prefect wasn't a social person at all, it was a stretch really to say he had any friends besides Tetsuya himself (that was if you counted the disciplinary committee as a whole and the rare few family members he didn't entire hate), and he'd much rather deal with people face to face.

Whoever he was talking to must be important, nay, they had to be exceptional. The very few times Kusakabe had caught Hibari talking to them off guard, the prefect had sported this odd, fond look on his face that Tetsuya hadn't seen on him ever before.

If he had found someone he cared for so much, why would he hide it?

Oh... oh god, he had a secret lover. It was the only explanation! Going to such lengths to hide this person, the fond look he wore – that almost spoke of the forbidden L word (at this thought, Tetsuya felt faint) – and the fact that he was always talking to them when he had the chance.

The second in command was shocked. Hibari had gotten a secret lover.  _Hibari_  had gotten a secret  _lover._

Oh dear, what did he do? Tetsuya couldn't simply go and confront the prefect about these things. Besides being immensely private, the teenager was also incredibly shy about his feelings, and if Tetsuya tried to force him to admit his love for another, he didn't think he'd survive the backlash.

How did one as socially awkward as Hibari even obtain a lover in the first place? He would probably follow the example of the animal kingdom anyway... posture, attract, and mount.

Tetsuya froze.  _Mount_.

Holy hell, Hibari would want offspring. That was a natural part of mating, and it would obviously occur to the prefect.

No, no, no. Tetsuya promised Hibari's parents he'd look after the boy, not let him became an underage, teenaged father!

Something had to be done.

The second in command approached the problem with as much finesse as he possibly could. He had just given Hibari his final report for the day, and the prefect had finished all his paperwork. They had nothing left to do for the day, so Hibari could have the time to talk all about his illicit relationship if he felt the need to. Tetsuya could also run away afterwards without being needed back for the rest of the day.

"Hibari-san," he started. The prefect in question looked up from his paper stacking and raised a single brow.

Tetsuya swallowed. He could do this. He had to do this, for Hibari and his future children. The prefect wasn't even married yet, he couldn't afford such a scandalous relationship!

"I'm aware that you... are at a certain age. And that you may... have developed certain– certain desires."

"Tetsu, stop."

The second in command trudged on. "However, at this age, everything seems new and wonderful, and I don't want you to... plough right into things without thought."

Hibari seemed to be coughing. Or maybe he was choking, Tetsuya couldn't tell.

"You need to think of safety, and responsibility, and the future of your children."

The prefect seemed as if he was going to stand up, so the second in command rushed through the ending before he could be interrupted.

"And I only wanted to remind you not to rush things. Stay safe, and don't do anything your parents wouldn't approve of."

Tetsuya bowed before rushing out of there. He could hear Hibari still cough-choking behind him. There was a moment of silence before he could hear the other boy spluttering.

"Stop laughing!"

Oh dear, they had heard that? Tetsuya escaped faster. At least he could be sure that his leader would stay safe.

– x –

No matter how much Tetsuya rooted around, he couldn't find evidence of a headset. Sure. Hibari obviously kept it on his at all times – especially if he was talking practically all the time (the imagined phone bill made him shudder), but surely there must be instructions, packaging, anything? Tetsuya may have ensured Hibari knew about safety, but his duties didn't end there. He needed to find whoever this lover was and make sure they were suitable.

Given that Hibari still had problems working his mobile phone, Tetsuya thought he'd definitely need some help working a headset. But with no evidence coming up, the second in command was starting to worry. He hadn't... he hadn't been mistaken? Maybe that  _hmm_  wasn't one of contemplation? Maybe Hibari had imagined a lover.

There was only one way to find out.

The disciplinarian found himself shadowing (not stalking) his leader once more, trying to strain his sight to find a headset amongst Hibari's dark hair. It wasn't going well, and he'd been following the other boy for the better part of an hour already. It was simply so difficult, especially considering the nature of Hibari's hair, to determine if there was something there or not. He'd have to get closer.

At least over the course of the hour, the second in command had managed to confirm Hibari was talking to  _someone_. The replies were too spaced out, too thoughtful to be simply talking to himself. Either there was someone else, or he was imagining someone else.

Tetsuya was preparing himself for getting closer when the unthinkable happened. A few papers slipped from Hibari's arms and fell to the floor. And then the papers, picked themselves up and floated back into Hibari's arms.

Tetsuya blinked. What?

The prefect smiled.

Tetsuya froze. Hibari had smiled. He had  _smiled._  Papers had moved by themselves, and his leader expressed positive emotion.

The second in command rubbed his eyes, backing away as he did so. Maybe he was the one seeing things. No, he was obviously seeing things. He was still in shock.

The taller boy resolved to book himself a doctor's appointment, before leaving to take a well deserved rest.


	10. Chapter 10

It was nearing April fools, and Hibari was on the warpath. Before his enrolment in the school, the holiday had been a big deal, an excuse of students to execute their revenge, release frustration and payback annoying teachers. It was practically a Namimori tradition to prank others.

Tsuna had told Hibari this, being well versed in the tradition despite having died before April came to pass. People had tended to prank him regardless of the time of year, and he had heard of all the legendary pranks that had happened, so the small brunet was a valuable source in explaining just to what lengths students would go to in their pranks.

The holiday was on Friday, and it was currently a Monday, so students would only be starting with small-scale, harmless pranks. Nothing that would disrupt the order too much.

However, regardless of their level of disruptiveness, Hibari abhorred pranks, and he would not allow such behaviour take place at his school. He would  _bite_  and herbivore to  _death_  if they even thought the word 'prank'.

So of course, he was patrolling twice the amount, intent on catching out any student unlucky enough to be caught in the act. The punishment for pranking would be twice as painful as usual.

They had covered most of the corridors that morning, Hibari catching out several people to bite to death, and Tsuna pointing out something every so often, to bring Hibari's attention to. Once they were done, the prefect resolved to check inside the classrooms, remembering his previous lesson that he was quite unaware of when on within them.

The first two were fine, the students suitably cowed by Hibari's unshakable dedication in crushing the playful holiday to do anything. It was the third classroom in which it happened.

Hibari slammed open the door, glancing around for anything that appeared to be unsavoury. He could see students' faces visibly pale at his arrival, and it was only when they started looking upwards that he thought to look up, his eyes widening at the presence of a bucket. A bucket that had already started falling.

The prefect didn't have time to react, but before he could even brace himself, Tsuna was there, having floated up to deflect the bucket away from him. It fell a few metres away from the prefect, accidentally splattering a few misfortunate students instead with the bright green goo within it.

Nobody paid attention to the bucket.

Tsuna floated back down, and turned to Hibari with a smile.

"That was close, eh, Hibari?"

The prefect didn't respond, and Tsuna frowned. What was wrong? All he had done was deflect the bucket.

While they were in front of an entire class.

Oh crap,  _oh crap._  Nobody else could see him. To everyone else, it would appear as if the bucket had simply been deflected by some invisible force field.

The brunet would have paled, if blood still ran through his body.

"Damn."

– x –

They hadn't even left before student started talking.

"Did you see that?"

"It just  _moved_ , all by itself!"

"Do you think Hibari did it?"

"If anyone could do it, it's Hibari."

"That guy isn't even human, of course he did."

"Guys, Hibari isn't  _human_."

"He has powers."

"What do you think he is?

"I don't know, but  _Hibari isn't human_!"

The ghost and the prefect looked at each other, and grimaced. Unknown to them, a silver haired transfer student had also seen the entire thing, and was watching Hibari with wide, sparkling eyes.

"It's an  _UMA_."

– x –

Hibari grit his teeth. Besides him Tsuna was panicking, looking between the prefect and the newest addition to their party.

They were being stalked. And quite obviously at that.

Silver hair flashed as the newest addition to their school hurried after them. If Hibari wasn't so looking forwards to taking his nap in a moment, Tsuna was sure he'd be upon the new student like a vengeful bird of prey, intent on putting him in the hospital for months for crowding around them.

As it was, the transfer student – Gokudera Hayato, as his papers said – was persistent. After the bucket incident, more than once student had been fascinated by the prefect, and although most students were reasonably still very much afraid of the boy, some had instead made attempts in catching Hibari off guard again so he would use his 'demonic powers'. They set up more pranks, and threw stuff at him, but they had no luck. It was a once in a lifetime occurrence that Hibari was caught off guard. They stopped, eventually, after they kept on being beaten up and a couple were given broken bones.

Gokudera Hayato had not given up. The silver haired boy had stalked them almost daily, always managing to slip away when confronted, and if cornered, with the use of mini explosives – which had only made Hibari even madder. Needless to say, the prefect was tense. He had spent far too many days in a constant state of absolute rage and he  _needed_ this nap.

If it were only stalking, the prefect wouldn't be this tense. He could have treated the other boy like some stray puppy, like another Tsuna he didn't need to acknowledge or talk to. But no, the student didn't only follow them, he made  _observations_.

"Subject appears to spend the majority of its time alone. Have yet to determine its gender, so must refer to it as it." The student paused. "Appears to be a human male, but is most likely a disguise to prevent being outed as an UMA."

Tsuna sweatdropped as he listened to the mumblings of the transfer student. The lines on Hibari's back only became tenser.

Thankfully, they were approaching the committee room, and there Hibari could lock himself in, draw the curtains and have the nap he so desperately needed. Tsuna resolved to stay outside and guard.

"Subject seems to be approaching its lair. Have yet to gain access."

Hibari walked faster.

"Subject appears to have extraordinary senses. May have spotted me and retreated to its abode."

' _No',_ Tsuna mentally screeched.  _'You're just really obvious!'_

The prefect slammed the door behind him.

– x –

The sky was clear, the breeze was crisp and the sun was shining. It was, in essence, he perfect day to spend some time on the roof.

"Subject appears to favour high altitudes." A voice muttered from seemingly nowhere. One didn't have to look hard however, to see a silver haired teen crouching in the shadow of one of the rooftop corners, clutching onto a recorder. "Perhaps it was originally an airborne creature."

Hibari was tired. It seemed impossible that such a feat had occurred, but it was true. Despite the inhuman strength and stamina of the prefect, there was only so many fights he could get into – on top of running the school as he practically did – before he needed a break.

Of course he wasn't giving up. Hibari  _never_  gave up. He simply needed a certain amount of time away from humans each week, it was essential to his being. Hibari went  _weird_  if he was forced to crowd with people for too long, and nobody really wanted to see it.

"I will now attempt a closer observation."

' _Could you get more obvious?'_  A certain brunet ghost thought, watching the teenager advance forwards as if he were in a minefield with apprehension.

Given that Hibari's human quota was dangerously full, he was out cold – his mind needing somewhere to retreat to, before it was overwhelmed by the sheer presence of all the  _herbivores_.

"Hibari," Tsuna hissed, watching the transfer student get closer. " _Hibari!"_

The prefect shuffled around a little, but didn't wake up. He was  _exhausted_ , having to deal with the mess that was April fools, on top of being stalked by regular students, on top of being stalked by the persistent cockroach that was Gokudera Hayato. The sheer paperwork from the transfer student's bombs alone had him losing an extra hour sleep each night.

Tsuna panicked, knowing with absolute certainty that if Gokudera managed to get to close enough to the prefect, all hell would break loose.

Sadly, he still couldn't interact with living, breathing creatures. Actually, trees and plants were okay, and some animals could sense him, but Gokudera wasn't a tree, and no matter how much like a dog with a bone he acted, he wasn't an animal either.

The ghost rushed forwards, grasping the hem of Gokudera's shirt and started tugging at it.

"Oh! The subject's powers have been activated by proximity. They appear to be active while its defenceless – possibly a naturally developed mechanism for its species." Gokudera gushed into the recorder, his hypothetical dog tail wagging in excitement.

Tsuna kept trying to pull the student away, but he had been pitifully weak when alive, and it hadn't gotten any better when he was dead. Somehow it seems that the living had precedence, so his moving things only really worked when there was no living interference.

"I will attempt to get closer and document the change."

Gokudera brought out an old style camera, and Tsuna really started to panic.

"Hibari,  _wake up!_ "

But Gokudera had gotten too close. Even when Tsuna grabbed his recorder and flung it against the wall, the student wasn't to be stopped, and he arrived at Hibari's resting spot, camera reasdy, just as the prefect was waking up.

Hibari grunted a little, opening his eyes after a deep, satisfying nap. His instincts had been set off, and the prefect was awoken by them to find the danger. He blinked sleep from his eyes and looked up.

A flash went off.

– x –

Once he was fully operational again, Hibari was notably more wary of his surroundings. The transfer student was horrible at stalking people, but after so long of being hounded, the prefect wasn't going to take any chances.

He  _will_  find that herbivore and bite him to  _death._

Oddly enough, Gokudera wasn't seen for the entirety of the morning. Maybe he was skipping, but in the whole month he'd been at Namimori, the student hadn't missed a day – besides the week he spent at the hospital after the last stunt he pulled. Although Hibari despised truancy and those who broke rules, he felt that the student could have at least taken the day off when the prefect  _wasn't_ back at full capacity and actually needed the break.

After having finally hospitalised the other boy, Hibari could get the rest he needed. He knew the transfer student had been discharged the day before, and so he knew there was a very real possibility of running into each other. Only that time, Hibari was well rested, and fully prepared to become a murderer, if it meant that Gokudera was gone.

Alas, no student at all. No silver hair, or observations, or really, really bad stalking. Nothing. The prefect was starting to get paranoid.

He approached his office carefully, with a wariness that was unusual for him. It was really the only place Gokudera could hide for a while if he was at school. The prefect came up to the door, and slammed it open unceremoniously, one tonfa already out and prepared to bite.

There was nobody there.

The prefect relaxed, putting away his tonfa and starting to walk towards his desk. It seemed as if the student really was just skipping school. As he got closer, a flash of colour caught him eye, and Hibari was immediately drawn to it. He never had anything colourful on his desk.

Upon closer inspection, it was a magazine – with some weird title, 'UMA monthly' (was that English?) – with a written note stuck on top. Hibari picked it up.

' _I have decided to go back to Italy, but my stay in Japan has been very fruitful. I thank you for letting me observe you in your natural habitat, and I have shared my findings with the world._

_\- Gokudera Hayato.'_

What on earth...?

Hibari glanced down at the magazine and froze. On the cover was his picture, the digital Hibari seeming as if he'd just woken up. Above it, the title 'strange and rare, Japanese UMA' lay scrawled across the page.

"I'm going to kill him."


	11. Chapter 11

It started out with a cough. Tsuna glanced at Hibari for a moment before he continued his rant about just how many people walked through him when he least expected it.

"And I can see them shiver each and every time!" The brunet complained. "They shouldn't walk through people if they don't like how it feels. I don't like it any better than they do, you know?"

The ghost paused and looked at Hibari expectantly, waiting for the biting comment about how stupid herbivores couldn't even see him and he was a herbivore for complaining about it – or something of the sort. Tsuna jolted in surprise then, when instead of preparing to retort, the prefect had the oddest look on his face. His nose was scrunched up and his eyes were the tiniest bit watery – and  _was that a blush on his cheeks?_

The younger boy opened his mouth to ask what exactly was wrong with his friends when a loud, high pitched squealing sound rang out, sounding much akin to a deflating balloon.

Tsuna's mouth dropped open. "Did you just...?"

" _Herbivore_ ," the prefect growled in warning, which Tsuna ignored.

"You just sneezed!"

"I did not!" Hibari replied hotly, the hint of pink upon his cheeks becoming more pronounced.

The ghost continued gaping, wondering if he was, in fact, hallucinating. Hibari Kyoya was infamous for his stone-faced expression and serious demeanour. While Tsuna had gone a long way in breaking that facade – he was fairly sure that Hibari's smirks were more smiles around him – of which would make the average student faint at the sight, he had gotten a lot further in reading the prefect's limited facial expressions instead. Not once had he managed to prompt a pink-faced, indignant Hibari, and it was  _glorious_.

The prefect opened his mouth once more with a furious expression on his face – no doubt to tell the ghost off for gawking at him – and Tsuna, despite physically unable to be hurt, would have been terrified of it had not another high pitched sneeze that came out instead. A moment of shocked silence passed because Tsuna broke it with a hastily covered guffaw. He glanced, wide eyed, at the prefect to see if he had noticed. The pure fury on Hibari's face made Tsuna involuntarily step back.

"Hibari–"

"You will speak of this to nobody, understand." The prefect interrupted with a growl.

Tsuna nodded frantically, too caught up in his fear to retort that there was nobody else he could actually speak to. Hibari nodded, satisfied, and they went on walking together in silence. Before long however, the silence became too oppressive and the ghost had to break it.

"So..." he started.

Hibari twitched.

"Are you sick?"

The prefect stopped them once more, and turned to face Tsuna fully. If he was the type to do, Tsuna was sure he'd be sticking his nose in the air imperiously. As it were, he did speak with the most self-assured and condescending tone he possessed.

"Only herbivores get sick."

Tsuna nodded once more, far too cautious to see what would happen if he disagreed. And if he heard Hibari sneezing once more, not ten minutes later, he wisely didn't say a thing.

– x –

"You're sick."

Hibari scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous."

He went back to his documents, resolutely avoiding eye contact with the other boy. It would have been just as any other day if his face wasn't pink and hot, and his movements sluggish. Every other minute had him giving out a cough, and if someone listened carefully, his voice was just the tiniest bit scratchy.

Tsuna gave him a look, as if to say 'who do you think you're trying to fool?' Hibari outright ignored it. Crossing his arms, the ghost stood stubbornly right in front of the older boy's desk and  _stared_.

"Take a break."

"No," was the immediate reply.

"You're sick!"

That got no reply. Growling in frustration, Tsuna surged forwards and snatched the papers Hibari was working on from the desk and jumped back. He looked at the prefect triumphantly, regardless of the slightest bit of fear over the fact that he just  _stole the papers Hibari was working on_.

The brunet shook his head, pushing away any doubt. Hibari needed to rest, and if the prefect wasn't going to do so, then Tsuna would make him. Somehow.

Plus, he was sick, so he couldn't really retaliate anyway.

 _Right_?

"Herbivore." Hibari started, his voice low. "Give me my documents."

Tsuna shook his head, trying to ignore the fierce glare sent his way.

"You can have them after you rest."

The prefect growled, his sore throat making the sound more feral than it usually was. The brunet ghost flinched, but resolutely held his ground. Hibari was sick, and as his friend it was Tsuna's civic duty to make sure the older boy got some rest. Even if he had to force him.

" _Tsunayoshi_."

It should be illegal how scary his own name could be. Regardless, the ghost boy shook his head.

"You can finish them later."

It was a testament to how well they knew each other that Hibari could voice his stubborn refusal to back down with a single, furious look.

"Return my documents to me at once."

The implied ' _or else_ ' hang heavily in the air between them.

Tsuna could tell he was losing. For each time he had ever managed to get Hibari to do something he wanted, there were another three that the prefect simply refused to humour the brunet, and he could tell this time would be another.

' _Well, not if I have anything to say about it.'_

Tsuna straightened his shoulders, tightened his grip on the papers, opened his mouth to retort–

And ran.

Hibari shot after him the next second, and it was only due to the fact that the desk was in the way that Tsuna managed to escape Hibari's office uncaught. The brunet was screaming mentally, a constant mantra of ' _oh shit'_  running through his mind as he bounded down the corridors of the school. Each aspect of the ghost's supernatural energy was spent in making sure he went as fast as possible. Even so, the prefect was hot on his heels, and Tsuna had a wild, frantic thought that if he had been alive, he surely would have been caught and killed twice over by then regardless.

It was only by luck, really that it was late enough in the day that there were no students to see this pursuit. Although Namimori citizens were more prepositioned to accepting the strange and unusual – for any town that spawned Hibari couldn't have survived otherwise – it is certain that even they would find the sight of their prefect chasing floating documents around the school odd.

Corridors passed at high speed, and doors were wrenched open with such force it was surprising they remained intact. Eventually, the duo found themselves upon the roof. If Tsuna was alive, he was sure he'd be out of breath by that point. It was probably only the sheer weight of Hibari's stubbornness that stopped him from breathing heavily, but it was obvious the prefect hadn't gotten away unaffected. Sweat rolled down from his forehead, and the dark haired boy barely stopped himself from staggering on his feet.

"Hibari, just rest already!" Tsuna's voice, although not effected by his recent exertion, was high pitched with worry.

The prefect refused to stand down, his eyes trained upon the documents within Tsuna's hands like a rabid dog upon the backside of a postman.

The brunet huffed in frustration, throwing his hands in the air before placing them upon his hips, more than ready to give the other boy a proper verbal lashing for being so irresponsible with his health. Before he could get a word out, Hibari was rushing past him, intent upon the papers that he'd accidentally thrown away.

"Oops... ah! Hibari, don't climb the fence!"

– x –

"No."

Tsuna gave him a pointed look. The prefect huffed, before turning away with a  _tsk_  of irritation.

"Don't make me get Kusekabe."

If someone looked closely, they would see a small shudder run through Hibari's body.

"He can't see you."

The brunet raised an eyebrow. "But he can hear the mess I'll make."

Sighing in defeat, the prefect opened his mouth, and promptly swallowed the medicine.

"Now, was that so hard?"

"Yes." The prefect grumbled, sounding as close to petulant as was physically possible, which still being Hibari.

"This wouldn't have happened if you just rested a little, you know."

The dark haired boy refused to grace that with an answer, instead wrapping himself further in the blanked that was forced upon him. It was by unlucky chance that he'd ran out of energy while climbing the fence to retrieve his papers. He had simply used it all up during the chase to the roof, and so his body had decided to take a spontaneous nap.

Tsuna, quite adamantly insisted that he fainted. Of course he should have known that Hibari Kyoya never, ever does something as herbivorous as  _fainting_.

Sadly, it cost too much energy to try and convince the little poltergeist otherwise.

The prefect had awoken to Kusekabe's frantic calls and a hysterical ghost shouting in the background. It was, admittedly, not the worst thing he had seen upon first awakening, but it was close.

Of course, the second in command ordered him to rest, upon threat of informing his parents, who'd likely not let him see the light of day for a week.

' _Traitor'_ , the prefect thought venomously, huddling further into his blanket and turning away from the teddy bear besides him. God knows where Tsuna found that monstrosity, but it was  _not_  proven in any sort of study that stuffed animals help recovery time. He'd burn that bear as soon as he had the chance.

"Hibari, it's time for your soup." Tsuna announced, with all the devilish glee his evil little spirit could muster.

Hibari sneezed, and swore that one day, the ghost boy would rue the day he died for putting the prefect through such humiliation.

Right after he got better, of course.


	12. Chapter 12

"I went to your grave yesterday."

Tsuna immediately froze, unsure if he had actually heard the softly spoken statement or not. The papers he held slipped through his hands, his concentration no longer focused upon being able to hold them.

"H-Hibari?"

"There's a grave for you, in Namimori graveyard. It's next to a bench."

The brunet took a deep, shuddering breath, knowing that he didn't need to, but doing so anyway in some attempt to understand the emotion running through him. He had no idea where this had come from, or what had possessed the prefect to go do such a thing, but some small part of Tsuna was thankful. Honestly, he had, at some point, doubted he even  _had_  a grave. The part of him that was the small, bullied child he'd been growing up, the part that was downtrodden and neglected, use to inspire such depressing thoughts in him after his death. The idea that maybe there was no monument to him, nothing nice to remember 'Useless Tsuna' by. That his spirit had simply fallen out of his body, and left the dead husk to rot somewhere, long forgotten in a dingy alley, where it belonged.

At one point, he'd even wondered if his mother had noticed the loss. Maybe instead she went on the same, at some point wondering why she now had so much left over food, but never giving a thought to the missing son she had barely paid attention to otherwise.

Of course Tsuna eventually squashed those thoughts, and with time, had forgotten the deep pain of wondering if he had even been missed. Though certainly none of his classmates had mourned, he at least would have been missed by  _someone_. Even criminals were given graves, so there was no reason that he wouldn't have one either, or so he told himself.

But the confirmation, after so long without definite proof, that there was some physical monument, something tangible to represent the fact that Sawada Tsunayoshi had, at some point, been alive was like a punch in the chest. He floated over to Hibari, sitting next to the grim faced prefect.

"So," Tsuna started, trying to keep his voice even. "What did it look like?"

The prefect glanced at him once, before going back to marking some documents. Despite the apparently dismissal, Tsuna knew that Hibari was simply putting thought into his reply. The brunet had to wonder what sort of expression he wore, to warrant such delicacy from Hibari of all people.

"It's traditional," he offered, a note of approval in his voice. Although it wasn't common, some people, especially those with foreign influences, buried their dead in the western way. "It was clean," he paused, "someone had left fresh flowers."

There was no real significance in this; graveyards always had someone to monitor them, to clean them up and sometimes place flowers where there were none.

"What flowers?" Tsuna asked, pretending that his voice wasn't a little choked and the answer didn't mean the world to him.

Hibari paused once more, a question in his tone when he next spoke. "Sunflowers."

The brunet let out a small, startled laugh. "Sunflowers."

The prefect didn't respond, and Tsuna was oddly grateful for his quiet companionship.

"Sunflowers," the ghost sighed, his voice heavy with bittersweet nostalgia. "When I was little, an old man who used to babysit me sometimes died and we went to pay our condolences. All I really remember was the massive amount of flowers everywhere, all in white." Tsuna smiled. "I told my mum that when I died she wasn't allowed to make it all white and boring, that I wanted something pretty and colourful like sunflowers."

The ghost laughed. "I can't believe she remembered."

"Hn."

Very little was said further on the matter, but if a vase of bright yellow sunflowers turned up in the otherwise spartan disciplinary office a week later – well it didn't need mentioning.

– x –

Middle school in Japan was only beaten in terms of activity by High School. There was always some sort of event: a play, a festival. Tsuna used to love these simply for breaking up the monotony of haunting a place in which nobody could actually see you, but had since been distracted by having someone to talk to. Still, the murmurs he happened to overhear were the last thing he was expecting.

The Bon Festival.

The celebration didn't even fall anywhere in the school year, but in August. Far too late for anyone to mention it before the summer holidays started and already done and over with by the time they came back to school. The ghost boy honestly couldn't tell whether he'd been relieved or not; it was one thing to want desperately to be remembered, but another if that hope was ruthlessly squashed. He hadn't had the chance to find out – and honestly, Hibari's sunflowers (and the ones on his grave, he reminded himself quietly) were more than enough to put that old ache to rest.

Well he hadn't had a chance to find out until now.

It was some grand anniversary of the school – fifty years, a hundred, Tsuna couldn't actually garner which one it was, but the point of it was that the school decided to host its own Obon inspired remembrance. Discussion ran rampant about who should be included in this school wide assembly; from people who died for the school, people who died while attending, those who gave something to it and were now dead, and those who had died within it, too.

The last suggestion was what has Tsuna quiet and contemplative for the next few days.

"Out with it."

The ghost boy blinked, looking back at Hibari, who had stopped walking in lieu of giving him a bland stare. "What?"

"You're... broody." The  _tell me why or I'll bite you to death_  was heavily implied.

Tsuna faltered. "It's n-nothing."

He simply was very desperately trying to ignore the fact that yes, he died, and yes he might still be ignored, or worse  _belittled_  during the school wide assembly he definitely qualified to be part of and even in death all he would ever be known as or amount to would be  _Dame-Tsuna_  and all the new students who had never even met him would still pass on to their parents that hey, did you know some kids died at our school last year? His name was Dame-Tsuna and can you believe it he only  _fell down the stairs_ , even though it was not  _his fault–_

And no. He would not think about it, or talk about it, or god forbid, explain to Hibari that he was suddenly overcome with absolute terror that it might possibly be rubbed in his face just how little people had ever cared about him.

"Herbivore," Hibari warned, his mouth set into a frown.

"It's nothing, really Hibari."

And with that, Tsuna floated ahead, adamant in ignoring any further inquires. Nothing, after all, was wrong.

– x –

Of course, Hibari Kyoya did everything in his life with the same ferocity as a wounded animal facing down a bigger predator. With viciousness and an absolute determination to finish the task. So of course if something was bothering the Herbivore Ghost then Hibari was sure as hell going to find out what and  _bite it to death_.

"Herbivore."

"Gah!" Tsuna jerked, the documents he had just finished organising slipping through his hands and falling onto the floor. "What is it?"

"Tell me what's bothering you."

The prefect, like any animal, had no sense of emotional subtlety either.

"Hibari–"

"Now."

The brunet threw his hands into the air, before escaping through the floor.

Of course, it didn't end there.

"Herbivore."

The ghost startled, flailed and fell through the door he had been about to peer through to see if anyone was inside. As a result, Hibari was treated to the bizarre sight of only the lower half of the boy being visible with his arse stuck hilariously in the air. The prefect ruthlessly squashed down the urge to kick it, knowing that he'd be kicking the door instead.

"Get up."

Tsuna scrambled onto two legs in an attempt to regain his dignity as soon as possible, before huffing and shooting the prefect with a glare. Hibari was, of course, unfazed. "What is it?"

"Tell me."

Tsuna's face rapidly went from confused, to incredulous, before settling on irritated and disbelieving.

"No."

"Herbivore–"

"I said no."

And with that, he once again floated away.

For the third time that week, Tsuna was surprised by the abrupt arrival of Hibari, who had jumped in through a window as greeting. He absently rubbed his head where it would have surly banged upon the desk he'd been under if he was still alive. Such an occurrence had been so common Tsuna could still feel phantoms pains, a year after death.

"Hibari," Tsuna started with a frown painting his face, "I'm not going to tell you–"

"You're afraid of the remembrance assembly."

Voice dying, the ghost stared in shock at the prefect.

"W-what? How did you even find out about that?"

Hibari raised one perfect eyebrow. "I am chairman of the Disciplinary committee. All events fall under my purview."

"You didn't know about it before."

The prefect came close to a grumble. "Tetsuya gave me the completed paperwork this morning."

Of course Hibari left everything other than discipline for his subordinated to handle.

"If they don't acknowledge you," Hibari stated with the utmost confidence, "I will simply bite them the death."

Usually his trademark line would get a wry grin or even a laugh from the brunet. What Hibari was not expecting was some mixture of sadness and bitterness to cross the little Herbivore's face.

"You don't have to do that."

The prefect scoffed. "I do what I want."

"Let me correct myself," Tsuna sounded uncharacteristically serious. "I do not want you to do that."

Hibari opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off before he could.

"I don't want to have to  _force_  people to remember me, or have to make them say something nice about me, because they won't mean it. And what does it say about me if that's the only way anyone would ever pay me some respect. No," Tsuna shook his head, "I refuse to go on with the knowledge that asking you to  _make them_  is the only way my classmates would ever show me an inkling of kindness."

For once in his life, Hibari was faced with a problem that would not go away with physical violence. Feeling oddly frustrated and wanting badly to bite something, he instead forced himself to relax and give the little Herbivore the barest hint of a smirk.

"Hn."

Which was as good as an affirmative from Hibari.

Tsuna let the tension drain from his body, and managed a small, wry grin.

"How bad could it be anyway?"

– x –

Bad. It was very, very bad.

The entire school had gathered in the largest hall of the building. Various bouquets, mostly in white, decorated the hall. A large projection was set up, each slide going on to another dead person to remember.

There had been a speech, Tsuna knows, but he could hardly listen to it while desperately trying not to give into the feeling of hope that had crept up upon him as morning struck. He didn't even know why it was such a big deal – both Hibari and his mother remembered him (or in the case of the former, still knew him) – and he didn't need useless platitudes from classmates about how his early death was so tragic and how much they missed him because Tsuna knew with certainty those would be a lie.

Still, as it got closer and closer to where his own slide should be, Tsuna became tenser and tenser in anticipation. A small speech was given for the subject of the current slide, and as it came to a close Tsuna barely had time to brace himself before suddenly–

There he was. An old school photo took up the majority of the screen, and while he wasn't actually looking at the camera he didn't look half as miserable as he'd actually been in school, which was a plus at least. There was a caption underneath it in the same sharp, black letters that decorated every other slide in the PowerPoint.

His name, his class and the day he died.

"Let us take a moment to remember our lost classmate."

The principle's voice rang clear and solemn across the hall, and all Tsuna could think was  _that's it_?

No speech, or line about how much he'd be missed, or even a comment about what he was like. Nothing besides  _Sawada Tsunayoshi, 1B._

Tsuna was frozen, stuck in the silence that had fallen upon the assembly.

Why did it even matter? His classmates had never liked him in the first place, and dying really wouldn't change that. Did he really think that he'd amount to more than nothing? That lonely kid who fell down the stairs?

Tsuna swallowed past the lump in his throat, and turned to leave. He didn't need to be here for this.

And just as he was about to leave and shove the memory of this whole incident to the very back of his mind, a familiar voice rang out.

"I'd like to give a memorial about Sawada actually."

Tsuna blinked, as murmurs sprung up around him. What could Yamamoto Takeshi have to say?

Any and all protests were immediately silenced by Hibari, for which Yamamoto shot him a grateful smile. The baseball player stood up, and though he wasn't upon the stage, he could still feel each and every eye upon the room watching him.

_I hope you're watching too, Tsuna._

"Sawada," Yamamoto starts, swallows and then starts again. "Tsuna, wasn't really my friend."

It's a horrible start already, but Yamamoto pushes ahead. "But I really wish he had been."

A few people mutter at the statement, but they are easily quieted.

"We were in the same classes for years – most of my life actually. And I was so caught up in friends, and little problems, and baseball that I didn't pay him more attention than 'oh hey, that's the kid that gets bullied'."

Tsuna flinched, but remained rooted to the spot. Hibari glared, and Yamamoto doesn't see any of it.

"I should of paid more attention to him, because Tsuna was an amazing person. He'd come to school, every day no matter what the students or the teachers threw at him. He always did his homework, even if he didn't get it. And he never, ever said a bad word about anyone, no matter how many people said bad words about him." Here, Yamamoto laughed self-deprecatingly. "And when I was most caught up with doing well at baseball, and making sure I didn't let anyone down, and being sad and depressed, Tsuna died."

The hall was silent, as if holding its breath at the blunt statement.

"It was weird, the kid who always was there suddenly wasn't. And I didn't realise just how lucky I was to be alive until someone else died. I mean, it could have been me falling down somewhere and my dad who was left behind and it sucks that a good kid died for me to see through my stupidity, but I can't be more grateful that it opened my eyes and let me see that all the little things that were worrying me really didn't matter."

A few people had considering looks on their faces, and still Yamamoto went on.

"But more importantly, Tsuna taught me about trying even when everyone's given up on you, and trying won't always make life fair. That it's hard being a good person when everyone around you is pushing for something else, but that you should stick to who you are no matter what. And maybe Tsuna wasn't trying to be as deep as I'm making this," Yamamoto chuckled, rubbing his neck. "But Tsuna was a good person, who left behind people, and no matter what anyone said, I think he'd have become someone really special. And I'll live the rest of my life trying to value it, because I know that he didn't get the same chance."

Silence permeated the hall, and classmates were left stunned. It would seem as if the silence would stretch on forever, only for it to be broken by Yamamoto's nervous laughter.

"And, eh, yeah. That's it." He sat down once more.

The rest of the morning passed in a blur, and Tsuna wouldn't be able to hide the tears running from his eyes even if he wanted to. He grinned at Hibari, smile widest it could possibly be, and the prefect quirked his lips back, as if to say ' _of course you're more than nothing, idiot herbivore_ '.

The next morning, if Tsuna had a sly, secretive smile upon his lips, then Hibari didn't comment. Likewise, he wouldn't mention the note he saw Tsuna slipping into a certain boy's desk.

Yamamoto picked up the folded piece of paper, his brow furrowed in a frown of confusion. As soon as he opened it, a wide grin spread across his face.

"Anytime, Tsuna."

 _Thank you_.


	13. Chapter 13

"Herbivore."

"Hmm."

"Herbivore."

"Uhuh."

" _Tsunayoshi_."

"Ah, oh. Hey, what's up Kyoya?"

After getting no reply, Tsuna finally glanced up from the book he was reading to see the prefect with an oddly serious look – even for Hibari – on his face. The brunet frowned, and floated over.

"What is it?"

It took a moment for Hibari to respond, but Tsuna wasn't expecting the reply. "You don't have any pictures."

"What?" Tsuna blinked. "I'm pretty sure my student picture is still on file. Also, I don't think I show up on cameras, otherwise they'd have had an exorcist in already."

"That doesn't count." Hibari stated, matter of fact.

"Why not? It was one of my better photos, I'll have you know!"

Without warning, Hibari flung the picture at him, and the ghost barely had time to catch it before it went right through him. He glanced at it, only to flinch.

"Ah, it's, uhm, worse than I remember."

Hibari narrowed his eyes, as if to say,  _you think?_

In all honestly, the picture could have been worse – Tsuna remembers looking absolutely dreadful some days, and the day the picture was taken wasn't one of them. But it still didn't look… good. There were faint bags under his eyes, a fading bruise on one cheek and a few bandages around his neck that disappeared under his collar. He looked a bit run down, sure but it wasn't  _horrible_.

"This is unacceptable."

Tsuna winced. "It's not really that bad?"

The prefect didn't deign to grace him with a reply. His heavy stare continued to bore into Tsuna until the brunet relented with a sigh.

"Fine, it looks horrible. Why do you care anyway?"

Hibari raised a brow, but for once, decided to response verbally like an actual human being. Tsuna was both shocked and proud at how much his friend had grown.

"I want a picture."  _Of you._

Well, he replied partially verbally. It was progress. Tsuna, luckily, was already adept at interpreting Hibari-speak. Sometimes it felt like an imaginary voice whispering the answer in his ear, for which the ghost would be eternally grateful because otherwise he'd have absolutely no clue what that weird half-twitch of an eyebrow actually meant otherwise.

Maybe it was fate, that they were together. Tsuna was sure nobody else without super ghost powers and whispery voices would be able to survive Hiabri, let alone a full conversation with him.

"But I'm right here," Tsuna protested, and with a twirl, presented himself with a  _ta-da!_  "Why would you need a silly little picture when you have the real deal?"

"I want one."

Well.

Tsuna was wise enough not to argue.

– x –

"I said that I probably don't show up on camera, remember? There are too many mobiles around for me not to notice if they ever saw me."

"Mobile phones are prohibited on campus."

_As if that would stop anyone._

"Be quiet."

Tsuna recoiled. He hadn't even said anything!

"I can hear you think."

Sigh.

"Okay," he nodded in defeat.

"Stand still." Hibari muttered, opening the camera app on his mobile. Tsuna reluctantly kept quiet about the fact that he didn't  _stand_ , thank you very much, but that he  _floated_. Nobody, in actuality, gave a shit. Least of all Hibari.

A minute passed, and then another. Tsuna could stay still for as long as he liked really, but the camera pointing straight at him made him restless, and he was actually pretty excited about the result. Wouldn't it be cool if he could be pictured? The haunting opportunities were amazing to consider.

"Um, Hibari?"

"…What."

"Is it done?"

The prefect muttered something. Tsuna frowned. "What did you say?"

"It's not working."

"Oh." The ghost slumped, deflated, and floated over to his friend to look over the last few pictures on his phone. As Hibari said, they were of an empty classroom – no ghostly boy in sight.

The prefect was staring at his phone as if the sheer force of his glare could force it to suddenly perceive the supernatural. Needless to say, it did not suddenly develop this ability, and so the entire attempt was a spectacular failure.

"Hey, it's okay Kyoya," Tsuna said, trying to keep the dejection out of his voice. "We don't need a picture–"

"No."

Tsuna frowned. "No?"

"No." Hiabri nodded. "Quitting is for herbivores."

The ghost let out a half-strangled laugh, some hope blossoming under his chest. Hibari wasn't one to give up, that was for sure, and if anyone could so the impossible, it definitely would be the demon prefect of Namimori.

Tsuna quirked a smile. "It sure is."

And so, onto the next plan.

– x –

"And how is this supposed to be any different?"

As the day before, Tsuna was floating in place while a camera was pointing steadily at him. Hibari raised a brow, and then glanced down at the chunky, wide lensed camera in his hands. The ghost would have to admit that it looked cool, but being able to detect denizens of the afterlife would be something they would have mentioned in pro camera adverts if they could actually do such a thing.

"Can't you tell?"

Tsuna looked the camera over. It was big, and looked pro, and the lens jutted out more than he thought it would. Was it some new model?

"It's… big."

Hibari paused, as if to stop himself from letting out a sigh. "It's argentic."

"What."

"Analogue. It's an old camera. Not digital."  _You idiot_.

"Oh." Tsuna nodded, as if he knew what that meant.

"It captures light differently."

"Ah." He nodded.

The prefect looked suspiciously like he wanted to hurl the camera at Tsuna's head. Alas, it would achieve nothing but breaking the poor thing, and so the camera lived to see another day.

"Stay still."

Hibari snapped a few pictures, before nodding to signify that Tsuna could move again. The ghost immediately floated over.

"So, so? Can I see them?" The brunet was flitting around, trying to catch a glimpse of some sort of screen to see if it had worked.

"They need to develop."

"Oh. Like in the movies?"

This time, the brunet could have sworn Hibari actually did sigh.

They set up the dark room in the disciplinary reception, Tsuna floating up high to pin up curtains and blankets that could cover the windows, and Hibari preparing the chemicals they needed. It took a while to set up, but it was all very exciting, and by the time they were done Tsuna was more than ready to see the photos.

"How long will it take?"

"Half an hour to develop and a few hours to print."

Tsuna blinked. Who knew it took so long just to get a picture?

"How do you even know all this?"

Hibari barely glanced away from his work while replying. "It's my camera."

"Cool. And this will be in colour?"

"No."

" _Eh_? Why?"

"Colour photographs require absolute darkness. I am going to experiment with contrast instead."

Tsuna, long past pretending he had any clue what that implied – or in fact, anything about cameras – gave an absentminded nod before floating away, already bored with the whole thing. Maybe he could find some students to scare.

In the end, the good news was that Tsuna had shown up on film – which lent interesting perspective to other paranormals caught on camera – but he was badly blurred, and nothing they did could really change that. It was marginally better in colour, but still lacking in finer details.

Tsuna looked at the blurred mix of colours and tried not to let the apprehension show on his face. It looked like an amateur attempt at digital art. If the amateur used MS Paint, at that.

"It's not… that bad." He muttered.

"Hn."

It was pretty bad.

Tsuna looked worriedly at Hibari. For all that the prefect wouldn't give up, Tsuna didn't think there was any other form of photography they could try – or that it would work regardless.

The prefect in question was staring at the blurred photograph with such intensity Tsuna wouldn't have been surprised if it caught alight. He then stared at Tsuna, who was had to stop himself from bolting under such scrutiny, before going back to the photograph. This happened two more times, and by the end of it Tsuna was both confused and a little bit scared. He was half-convinced Hibari would try to capture his soul on paper, if only to get a decent picture.

"Hm."

The sound startled Tsuna out of his thoughts. "Ah… Hibari-?"

Without another word, the older teen swivelled around and left.

_What?_

Tsuna at first assumed that Hibari had given up and had gone to sulk. It's not like Hibari could do  _everything_ , and though disappointed, Tsuna was sure that this failure at least would allow the other boy to at least grow in emotional maturity.

At least, he hoped.

But not a week later – on a Tuesday, no less – Tsuna was accosted while floating around the school grounds.

"Herbivore."

" _Gah!_  Don't scare me like that, Hibari!" Tsuna scolded, holding a hand to his chest. "How are you so quiet anyway? I'm supposed to be the ghost here, you-"

"Quiet, Herbivore."

Tsuna paused, waiting for some further explanation, but nothing more was said. Just as he was about to break the silence, Hibari nodded once, as if to himself, before disappearing into the ether from whence he came.

_What?_

And again, Tsuna was jumped, this time in the corridor. He gazed blankly at the hole in the ceiling from which Hibari had descended while the other boy took to staring alternately at him and a piece of paper. Not a word was said the entire time, and though Tsuna was vaguely aware that Hibari was taking notes – as if he was some wild, exotic animal or something – he continued to stare at the hole in the roof, and did so for a good five minutes after Hibari had left.

Why,  _why_ , was the only person he could talk to so unbelievably  _odd_?

But no, Tsuna had resolved never to question the mysteries of life (or after-life, really) and so would accept Hibari's many faults and eccentricates with grace and open-mindedness.

Or so he thought.

"What the  _hell_  are you doing?"

Hibari glanced up at him for a moment, only to impart a look that said,  _what does it look like I'm doing? Idiot._  Before going back to noting down measurements.

The measurements he was taking of Tsuna's face, that was.

Batting away the ruler that had unceremoniously been shoved under his nose, Tsuna resolved to get to the bottom of this, once and for all.

Hibari's coat could already be seen flapping in the distance as he made a quick getaway.

Tsuna threw this hands up in the air. " _Goddamnit!_ "

Next time, next time he would get him.

Next time came soon enough, but Tsuna was prepared. Just as the other boy was about the get the jump on him, Tsuna whirled around and grabbed-

"Aha!"

-a piece of paper?

Eyeing it curiously, he looked back at the prefect, only to take a step back because –  _ohwow_ , was Hibari… embarrassed? The other boy had a weird expression of both smug pride and looking constipated on his face. Tsuna was sure to note this down in the emotional milestone book he had made for the older boy.

"…Open it."

Wary, but with no other options, Tsuna unfolded the slightly crumpled piece of paper, not really knowing what to expect but taken aback all the same when he was what way upon it.

Heart in his throat, Tsuna smoothed the rumpled paper with shaking hands. He opened his mouth to speak, and closed it again. It was…

It was him, smiling, outside with plants on his side and a bird in his hair. It was him, in quite frankly,  _extraordinary_  detail, captured in rough pencil and charcoal.

He looked happy.

Tsuna looked up at Hibari, and really took in the details. He was looking away, with hands slightly clenched. There were smudges of black on the cuff of his uniform, and the tiniest signs of fatigue around his eyes. For someone like Hibari though, it was practically screaming how much effort had gone into this.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Tsuna spoke. "Thank you."

It was quiet, but no less heartfelt, and with the slow loosening of tension in the other boy's shoulders, the message was received.

_Thank you for being my friend._

Tsuna smiled. It seemed like he was thanking a lot of people recently. A year earlier, and he'd have been hard pressed to believe that anyone really cared about him when he was alive, never mind finding someone to care for long after his opportunities had gone.

Hibari smirked – in as much as he twitched the side of his mouth – before adopting a smug look.

"Hn. It was no problem."

Tsuna shook his head in fond exasperation. Of course it wasn't.


	14. Chapter 14

In all honestly, when someone is that odd-one out, the isolated loner who doesn't have anyone to talk to or anyone to sit with at lunch, it becomes easy for them to think they are the only one. Everyone else? They have friends. They can go hang out with people, and share their problems, and create a bunch of really cool memories. And so it becomes that the 'loner' thinks in the terms of 'everyone else' and 'me', and doesn't really deign to think outside of those distinctions. When Tsuna died, there were no other distinctions he could make – because the opportunity to change his status, to stop holding himself back and actually try and find some connection – had passed.

And maybe that was what made the first few months hardest. There was really nothing better to get over social anxiety and the trivialities of life with than actually losing it. And just in time to be pretty much invisible to the whole populace.

So Tsuna did things – things that later would become local legend, and cause him to lose his shit being scared that some sort of exorcist would  _find out_. At the time though, it didn't matter, because he needed something,  _anything_ , really, to show him that he still existed. That he wasn't some sort of weird figment of him own imagination.

He played the piano – pretty badly, in all honestly – late in the evening and smiled the next day when he overheard a student trying to convince her friend they  _yes, I heard it playing_ and  _no there was nobody there, you have to believe me Kana-chan!_  He would draw things on the bathroom mirrors, but soon stopped because it made too many students scared. He moved things in locked classrooms, left doodles in chalk on the blackboard, and swapped people's seats to see this try to figure out why they felt just the tiniest bit uncomfortable the next day. He had been, admittedly, a bit of a poltergeist.

But out of all the things he had done, Tsuna didn't regret the skeleton. Mr. Skeleton was a fairly old anatomical model sequestered away in one of the unused science rooms on the third floor. He was missing at least one rib bone, and another was cracked, and nobody could quite tell if it was used with actual human remains or was made with some sort of revolutionary casting technique way ahead of its time. These factors alone would make Mr. Skeleton more than creepy, but when Tsuna started to make him move, just a bit, when the delinquents were hanging out there, it made the skeleton just the tiniest bit terrifying. When one of them ran out screaming, Tsuna had felt bad. But only a little – they were the sort of people that had bullied him when he was alive anyway, so what was a little revenge?

Either way, there had now been a gap created in the hangout areas of the school. Nobody would go to the old science room on the third floor anymore, and Tsuna's boredom had run them off in fear whenever someone got it into their head to try. So it was with some mild surprise that, one day when casually floating around there and with nothing else to do, the door slammed open and in ran a scrawny first year. Tsuna perked up, because usually he only got delinquents or popular kids doing dares with their friends, not… that.

Scrawny had red hair, which was odd to see in japan but looked natural. His skin was pale and a little sickly in contrast, but that seemed to be from stress rather than anything else. He hunched in on himself, as if trying to avoid attention, but there was no way Tsuna wouldn't have remembered meeting this kid before. He had, what apparently was an unfortunate ability to stand out. Even hunched over didn't really detract Tsuna's attention from him, though to be fair, they were the only ones in the room – even if scrawny wasn't quite aware of his companion. No, it was the undeniable aura of 'easy to bully' that seemed to scream from the kid's posture, and it was probably that which had initially stayed Tsuna's hand from moving Mr. Skeleton's arm in greeting. For some reason, not everyone liked to be welcomed with a wave from their resident dead person. Heavens knew why not.

Tsuna was well aware of what sort of situations that sort of demeanour could lead someone into. Scrawny was probably desperately trying to hide out from some bullies, and the ghost boy wasn't mean enough to scare him off and right into his bully's fists just yet. Instead he watched in curious silence as the other boy slowly and carefully relaxed by degrees, and started to uncurl from where he was hunched over his stomach. Tsuna had thought the kid had been punched or something of the sort, but it seemed like he was just a little ill. His face certainly looked it, though that too was unscrewing and loosening up.

It was when he finally relaxed and fully uncurled with a despondent sigh that Tsuna made a move. He smacked two bones together, making a sudden  _clack_  sound in the silence of the room. Tsuna had never seen a person pale so quickly before.

In a flash, scrawny had his head bowed and his hands up in prayer.

"I didn't mean to disturb your spirit, Mr. Skeleton!"

It was lucky he bullies were probably far away by then, or they immediately would have come running at the shout. Tsuna raised an invisible eyebrow in amusement. Old, alive him would have been feeling pretty guilty by that point, but for dead him this was the most entertainment he'd had all month.

"I would like to use this room for a while, if you please!"

The kid shouted again, and wordlessly Tsuna made the skeleton nod just to see what would happen. Amazingly, scrawny managed to get paler.

"A-ah, thank you." He said, quieter this time, and bowed again. How refreshingly formal. What a nice, normal kid.

In so far as staying to talk to the local school spirit instead of  _running the heck_ away was normal.

Still, the kid – and Tsuna really needed a name for him – was the best thing that happened to Tsuna so far, so he wasn't going to look the gift horse in the mouth.

And what a gift horse it was.

Tsuna had been slowly but steadily going a little  _odd_  without some outside stimulation. Talking to himself, writing on walls – only a little though, and not in blood at the very least – and even, god forbid, singing for no reason other than to hear himself sing. Still nobody could see him, and still he wouldn't hear his name or be able to talk about himself or even respond outside of a basic itinerary of  _yes_  and  _no_  with a nod and a shake of the skeleton head respectively. There was, somehow, something to be said for someone speaking to you regardless – even someone speaking  _at_  you that gave Tsuna a taste of the acknowledgement he'd been craving since death.

Scrawny pale kid gave him that acknowledgement. He came to the room ever evening after school. His bullying problem was of a level Tsuna hadn't seen even in his own experiences – it was disconcerting, humbling and caused no less than a  _heck_  lot of anger on the kid's behalf. People would poke the pathetic kid, sure – Tsuna had been entertainment in the cruel casual way of the bored, and only a few people had any real issue with him. But the kid that came to him every day? He wasn't just some loser – he was some loser with  _brains_. And that, most of all, made people angry.

Jealousy was an ugly thing after all.

If Tsuna found himself adding to the mysteries of the school a little then, it wasn't really an unexpected development in his eyes. Maybe the bathroom nearby had the odd tendency of showing notes on the mirrors written on foggy surfaces, it was no big deal. They disappeared pretty quickly, and if nobody really figured out how they appeared, well, that wasn't Tsuna's problem. And if people started avoiding that too – 'haunted' really was a useful deterrent after all – avoiding it enough that the poor kid wasn't sat rigid in fear for hours in case somebody walked past well, that wasn't Tsuna's problem either.

What  _was_  a concern of Tsuna's was Scrawny Kid, who had never given his name after the initial meeting, and wouldn't have really brought it up afterwards without prompting. Scrawny Kid and his little projects, his dreams of music school and stories about his sister and mother. Scrawny Kid who continued to call Tsuna ' _Mr. Skeleton_ ' first with shy hesitation, then with familiarity and finally with some fondness. The kid who ran in once or twice crying because all his notes had gone – and then ran in the next day in a little shocked excitement because all his bullies' desks had ended up outside overnight and nobody knew how. Who took every shake and nod of a skeleton model's head with serious consideration and asked for advice and poured his heart out in an abandoned classroom with no other company than an invisible ghost boy and a broken-down skeleton. Scrawny Kid who Tsuna looked at and for once in his life or un-life thought  _he needs to be protected_.

(That Tsuna went a little – or  _way_  – too far with his interventions, sparking the attention of a local 'paranormal investigator' team of two teenagers, a young adult and a five-year-old; leaving Tsuna with a deep,  _deep_  seated fear of exorcism for the next entire year – well that? That was another story altogether.)

Tsuna spent every evening after school with Scrawny Kid, listening to him talk, confess and tell stories with rapt if unacknowledged attention. He did this for months, and though there was little – or arguably no – interaction between the two boys, there was a bond – somehow, in some way – that soothed the remnants of hurts from life that Tsuna hadn't known existed. He came to look forward to these meetings, these stolen hours where everything was a little bit more alright – the golden hours that started every evening with scrawny kid opening the door and calling out a greeting of  _I'm back_! Tsuna would, secretly, respond with a  _welcome back_  each evening.

Right up to the evening the kid said he was transferring away.

The thing Tsuna regretted most since then was that he fled for those last few weeks – too afraid to stay and see his friend move on, too hurt to continue as if nothing was wrong. He robbed himself of a proper goodbye – and Tsuna was both positive and fearfully hopeful that scrawny kid continued to go to the same, abandoned classroom every evening, waiting for his friend to respond and continuing to talk anyway. He could see it in his mind's eye, a bittersweet smile and downtrodden red head saying one last goodbye with nobody to hear him – staying right up until late evening of his last day. Or maybe he never went back, and his final hoorah of–

"Hey… I have something to tell you."

_An indrawn breath._

"I'm moving schools."

– _was_  his last goodbye, and he left only with that and nothing more, having already forgotten Tsuna in light of better prospects.

Tsuna wasn't sure which one hurt his heart more.

Though now it had been long past those lonely days of a bullied child and his invisible friend. Tsuna would treasure them just as much as he treasured Hibari and his amazing, wonderful ability to  _see_ Tsuna. He could hold old memories close to heart and make new, just as precious ones with what he had right then. He wasn't going to mess up a second time.

"What exactly are we doing, herbivore?"

Tsuna glanced up from his collection of (stolen) lipsticks to watch the emotions play across Hibari's face – few that there were. A frown, another frown –  _ooh_ , an eyebrow twitch, how  _exciting_ – and one more frown. He grinned and shrugged his shoulders as if to physically shuck the mood of nostalgia that crept upon him at the familiar task.

They were in the student bathroom, preparing for the coolest, creepiest message they could leave for maximum impact.

"What we're doing is having  _fun,_  Hibari."

"This is vandalism and against the school rules."

" _You're_  against the school rules." Came the muttered reply.

"Herbivore–"

" _Relax_ , Hibari, it'll wipe right off," Tsuna replied, already starting on his message. Should he go vengeful lover this time?

Hibari made a disgruntled  _hmph_  but otherwise did not protest further. After a moment, he spoke again.

"Herbivore."

"What?" Tsuna asked in distraction. He was adding the bloody effects.

"That shade of red is far more suitable." Hibari nodded towards a different lipstick. Tsuna grinned and picked it up.

"Thanks."

With a small smile to himself, Tsuna continued to add a dramatic flair, already able to hear the – harmless, really – screams of his classmates. It was going to be  _great_.


	15. Chapter 15

All the third years were talking about it. There was an excitement in their veins, the potential for something new and bigger and wonderful. There was simply so much  _possibility_  for these children, places to go, new things to study, the idea of their lives finally starting. They could choose their paths as they left this small school, make the decisions that would determine the rest of their lives.

For Hibari Kyoya, and Sawada Tsunayoshi, the feeling was different. There was an unspoken heaviness between them, a charged air of things left unsaid; not of 'what ifs', but of 'what now'?

Graduation was imminent.

– x –

"I don't have to go, you know."

The prefect wasn't one to beat around the bush, and they both knew – had known for a while – that he was in his third year already, and even if he wasn't, he would have to leave eventually.

"Don't be silly," Tsuna replied, a wide, fond smile upon his face. "You can't stay a middle school student forever."

"I could," the prefect said quietly. "I could stay for as long as I wanted."

Oddly enough, it was true. Hibari didn't need to go to school in the first place, and so he didn't need to move on from it either. He could stay for years and years, only graduating when he was old enough to be a teacher, and then still continue to be there. Tsuna could imagine it clearly, see Hibari spending all those years with him, becoming a teacher – heck, he would probably become the principle too – and the other boy wouldn't have to leave until he was old and weary and his life gave out. They could spend days upon days, hours upon hours, talking and sitting together, wandering the halls and the grounds, building nests in trees, being happy and content as all the other students moved through the years and left, and they alone would be the only ones to stay.

Tsuna shook his head.

"I know you could, if anyone can find a way to stay here forever, it would be you, Kyoya."

The prefect's face appeared impassive, but they had spent the better part of two years together, and Tsuna could see the inquiry upon his face, the unspoken ' _but_?'

"And I know you would as well, which if why I have to stop you. You're not supposed to be bound, Kyoya. You like it here, I know. But you'll always want to be able to go somewhere else – wherever your heart tells you, and you won't be able to do that if you stay, too caught up in keeping me company. You may as well become a ghost too, limiting yourself like that, and I won't let you determine your whole life for one dead little thirteen year old."

Hibari's face was blank, but his eyes betrayed the swirl of emotions running through him. He didn't want to leave; he didn't want to abandon his first friend, his wonderful ghost. Tsuna wasn't just some  _dead little thirteen year old_ , he was everything, he was Hibari's and so it was only right that Hibari was his in return.

Some small part of Hibari also knew, despite what he wanted, that Tsuna was also right. Hibari hated, more than anything, to be bound, and the prefect would live in fear of the day he was old, having spent his life in the same little town – the same small school – where he would grow to resent the little ghost boy who he had given it all up for in the first place.

But Hibari was also notoriously stubborn, and he wanted to stay. Two years had not nearly been enough with Tsuna. The boy was a breath of fresh air, he was the sun and rain and storm and maybe – if he were still alive, and not bound as he was – he'd be the endless sky, limitless, with no end as to what he could do, where he could go.

Maybe for the first time in the years they'd been together, Hibari really understood just how unfair it was, that this small, sweet boy had died so young.

"This isn't over."

With a sigh, Tsuna watched as his long-time friend stalked away. No, it wasn't over. Not yet at least.

The next week was, for lack of a better word, strained. Each conversation seemed a little more forced compared to the last, every silence held some untold tensioned. Words were said without being spoken, their friendship strained – quite possibly for the first real time – and on and on it went while the deadline grew closer and closer.

Tsuna, for his part, was a mess. He hadn't felt so alone, so out of touch with others, since the first year he had died and before Hibari had even known he'd existed. It was incredibly frustrating, and Hibari undoubtedly was one of the most stubborn people he'd ever known. In all honestly, Tsuna knew that Hibari would not really leave him behind.

He met the prefect four days before graduation.

"Hibari-san."

The prefect looked up, because they had long past the point of formality, and Tsuna only used his name properly if he had something important to say.

"You haven't picked a college, yet."

So, it was going to be like that. Hibari relaxed his shoulders; they were still going to talk in circles and get nowhere, and nowhere meant Hibari was going to come out on top.

"You know very well that I'm not going anywhere."

Tsuna held himself tense, almost flinching at his own words when he then replied. "If you aren't going anywhere, then I will."

"…What."

Tsuna, for the first time in a long time, could not read Hibari's face. Maybe the other boy was so taken aback he couldn't appropriately express the whirling emotions faced with this new, unexpected proposal. Maybe it was simple shock.

"Tsuna. What do you mean?"

Tsuna took a deep breath, evidently for comfort for he had long since ceased to breath. And as his life had long since been over, it would not be fair to cut another's short in the same way. Hibari was meant for more than this, and Tsuna knew it.

"I am… bound, I guess, to the school. I can feel it in me, and I can't go beyond it." He started and Hibari nodded once. He knew that by now, Tsuna had never gone even close to the boundaries of where the school ended and the rest of the world began.

"But," Tsuna continued, "that isn't because I tried and there was some sort of – I don't know,  _barrier_  holding me back. I've never tried to leave and way dragged back here, I just know not to leave. The school is like," Tsuna paused with a frown, considering. "It's like an anchor. I can let it go, but then I won't be grounded here anymore, do you understand?"

Hibari understood. He understood that Tsuna could let go, and leave him and never be around again.

"Oh. Kyoya." Tsuna raised a hand towards him, but stopped halfway. They both knew he wouldn't be able to touch the older boy, nor could he do anything for the red rims and slow trickling tears running down Hibari's cheeks.

Hibari cried like he did most other things, silently and without expression. And when he was done, he wordlessly wiped his eyes and stared off to the side. Tsuna waited close by but respectfully silent, aware on some level that Hibari would finally have to mourn his death, three years too late.

They could go on about this, they both knew, argue about putting off leaving for a few years. Tsuna could leave next year or the year after, or Hibari could compromise and go on his adventures and return to the school periodically. But both boys weren't the sort to beat around the bush, not after all that had happened between them. Either option would bring the sort of deep, soul-aching pain that would destroy them in one way or another. It would be too cruel to Hibari to have his life on hold, to commit and grow deeper entwined with Tsuna only to give it up all over again. Tsuna knew he'd never be able to bear staying around after Hibari leaves him, to watch in snatches of interactions as the other boy grew older and moved on and lived his life while Tsuna was stuck – alone and unmoving forever.

So, they stood together in quiet companionship, neither speaking and neither turning to leave. It would hurt – it already hurt a little in Tsuna's heart because he couldn't  _go with him_  – but Hibari would be fine. He would be fine.

And that was enough to put a small smile on Tsuna's face.

The graduation ceremony was in three days, and in contrast to the week before, those three days were spent entirely in each other's company, existing comfortably side by side for the last time. They ignored the practice sessions for hanging out on the roof, and ignored the inevitability of the end right up until the morning of the ceremony.

The students lined up, two by two, and though Hibari – ever the lone wolf – did not have a partner in the eyes of everyone else, Tsuna was right there besides him as they marched towards the stage. He was there when Hibari was handed his diploma, sharing a smile with the other boy when he left room for Tsuna to hold it as well – a little part of graduation for him as well. Tsuna stayed through the speeches, all through Hibari's own – which, remarkably did not include a single 'herbivore' reference at all – and stayed right up until they bowed for the school for the last time. When Hibari looked up again, Tsuna was gone.

With a huff and a small upturn of the lips, he took his diploma and left.

"Farewell, herbivore."

So Hibari left the school campus for the last time, firmly intent on never visiting again. He wasn't a sentimental person after all. And as he left, a flash of brown caught the corner of his eye, and the ex-prefect smiled. He wasn't a sentimental person, but the memory of a small brunet ghost – a boy most people didn't even know existed – that was one he'd carry in his heart for the rest of his life.

– x –

_Epilogue._

Hibari left Namimori the day after he graduated, and never looked back. Not much is known about where he went, although he was spotted many times during these years in China, often with the famous martial artist Fon. Rumours had it that he simply made his presence known in Europe one day, for no discernible reason. He completed a brief stint in the French police force before leaving once more when it became too stifling.

He had a few run ins with the Mafia, only spending a few short years in its clutches – long enough that his name became feared; a legend to rival that of Reborn's – before he left once again, unimpressed by its rigid and stifling ways. Apparently when he left, he had taken one of their best and brightest with him as a student, and neither were seen by the mafia since.

Hibari remained an odd person for the rest of his life. He adamantly refused to drop the animal metaphors, much to the chagrin of his second in command, Kusakabe Tetsuya. Whenever Tetsuya asked him why he did things, or told him off, Hibari would simply explain that he was living for two, and leave it at that.

He was still excessively violent, quick to anger and socially stunted. He often talked to himself, as if commenting out loud to someone else, but when asked he would never explain it. Hibari adamantly favoured the colour brown, oddly enough, claiming it reminded him of a rabbit he once had as a child – and even if the scary, fearsome man seemed the furthest thing from sentimental, nobody would dare point it out.

He never settled down, having never found anyone who he would willingly settle down with for the rest of his life, and Hibari was content with that. He never had children of his own, but his apprentice became close enough that she was his child all but in blood, and her children became his grandchildren.

After a while, he finally,  _finally¸_  found a place in which he could stay and rest within until his age caught up with him. It was a town in Japan, not the one he had lived in as a teenager, but one that he had fallen in love with all the same.

He was visited often by his apprentice and her children, and they grew to take on his teachings as well. He never truly settled down, often flying off without a second thought when he felt like it, but he'd always return.

But at the grand age of seventy-three, Hibari knew his time was coming to a close. He had always kept in top shape and healthy throughout his life, and could have probably lived for a decade more if he tried – despite the numerous injuries and near-death experiences he'd faced – but the man knew it was his time, and he was content with it. His second in command had passed away three years prior, and Hibari finally had nothing else he wanted to do.

The raven haired man, more silver than black, now, sat upon his porch, as he was want to do, and gazed upon the sky. It was peaceful, where he chose to stay, far away from the city that no noise or excessive light would disrupt him. His tea was still steaming besides him, his robe wrapped around him snugly and the cloudless sky sprawled out before him. He let out one, long and weary sigh – the sigh of a man who had lived his life to the full, unbound, and was ready to put it to rest. And after that sigh, he slumped against the door and closed his eyes.

Later, when his apprentice and her children found him, it would have seemed he had simply decided to take a nap. It was entirely a Hibari thing to do, to decide he had enough of life and then simply stop working. And despite the grief of the apprentice and her children, they could make content with his death, for when they found the old man his lips were turned up in the barest hint of a smile.

Far off, far away from the man's body and the grieving people around him, a raven haired teen stepped forwards. He had grey eyes and a stern face, but it immediately softened at the sight of the brunet boy besides him.

"Welcome back."

The teenager smiled.

" _I'm home_."


End file.
